By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service
June 21, 2007 – Defense officials this week are judging innovative tools that provide geospatial imaging, boost network communication and security, or fulfill other warfighter requirements on their utility, security and interoperability with existing and new systems. More than 40 organizations and companies from around the world are participating in the 2007 Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration, or CWID, a forum at the Pentagon's Warfighter Capability Demonstration Center, where innovations undergo trials to determine if they might one day bridge technology gaps.
"Our challenge is to develop, discover, standardize and deliver -- with an emphasis on deliver -- solutions demonstrated in CWID to the warfighters, because they need them now," Navy Vice Adm. Nancy Brown, Joint Staff director for command, control, communications and computer systems, said in a video presentation at the forum.
With more than $11 million of direct funding from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the event investigates new and emerging technologies that can be moved into operational use in 6 to 18 months.
For example, the Buster unmanned aerial vehicle, an aircraft equipped with two high-resolution cameras that can stay aloft for up to six hours, also tested well at last year's demonstration. Later, the Marine Corps purchased two eight-plane squadrons, and the United Kingdom and Spotsylvania, Va., sheriff's department now use the vehicle in operations.
Brown called CWID the premier event for bringing together key players from the departments of Defense and Homeland Security, interagency partners, the National Guard and a growing number of state and local first-responder organizations. Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and NATO make up a coalition component.
"Our mission is to share critical warfighting information among coalition participants, to document interoperability successes and shortfalls, and to focus on information-sharing technology that leverages and amplifies the skills of warfighters and operators for future combined operations," she said.
Illustrating real-time interoperability, Air Force Col. Mike Lebiedz of U.S. Joint Forces Command, who served as yesterday's master of ceremonies, connected conference participants at the Pentagon live via video link with U.S. Northern Command headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo. There, operators described the homeland defense scenario used to judge the effectiveness of technology on trial.
In this doomsday scenario, a plague rapidly spreads across Mexico, leading to mass evacuations into the United States, as terrorists threaten to detonate a chemical weapon in San Diego.
The National Guard-sponsored "Collaborative Decision Aid," one of the technologies on trial, is then put to the test. This Web-based integrated software tracks in real-time national security and local crises and regional emergencies, providing satellite imagery of the affected sites to help decision-makers assess damage "at a glance."
Lebiedz then linked to Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command in San Diego, where operators described a scenario in which regional unrest in Africa escalates to a multinational insurgency with cross-border invasions and mid-intensity conflict.
In the midst of this vast international hostility and humanitarian crisis, Italy's Navy Maritime Command and Control Information System demonstrated how it tracks coalition sea craft using satellite imagery similar to that used by "Google Earth."
"The fact of life is when we're operating around the world, we have to work with other folks," Lebiedz said. "So it's definitely to our advantage to figure out how to do that before the bullets are flying."
Each trial is being assessed by three teams of experts whose findings will be published in a final report due out this fall.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Care Package Recipient to Receive Free Jeep
By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service
June 21, 2007 – One lucky patriot serving overseas will find another type of patriot awaiting his or her return home, thanks to an America Supports You organization and a Jeep dealers association. Operation Gratitude packed its 250,000th care package the morning of June 16. The contents included the normal food, comfort and entertainment items, as well as a homemade quilt donated by school children. But the package won't be shipped until one more special gift is added to it next month.
The treasure at the bottom of the box will be symbolic keys to a Jeep Patriot donated by the New York Jeep Dealers' Association. Carolyn Blashek, Operation Gratitude's founder, will receive the keys to include in the package during a ceremony planned for July 16 in New York.
The package, which was packed as part of Operation Gratitude's fourth annual "Patriot Drive," will ship from New York shortly after the ceremony. It's expected to arrive at its undisclosed destination about the second week in August, Blashek said.
Who will receive this exceptional care package is a secret. Blashek knows, but she isn't talking.
"I will reveal nothing," she said.
The milestone moment comes on the heels of the California-based group presenting the recipient of its 200,000th care package with a Dodge Caliber. Marine Lance Cpl. Jordan Richards of St. Louis received the monumental package containing a card proclaiming "This Dodge Caliber is yours," while serving at Camp Fallujah, Iraq, last Christmas.
Operation Gratitude is a member of America Supports You, a Defense Department program connecting citizens and corporations with military personnel and their families serving at home and abroad.
American Forces Press Service
June 21, 2007 – One lucky patriot serving overseas will find another type of patriot awaiting his or her return home, thanks to an America Supports You organization and a Jeep dealers association. Operation Gratitude packed its 250,000th care package the morning of June 16. The contents included the normal food, comfort and entertainment items, as well as a homemade quilt donated by school children. But the package won't be shipped until one more special gift is added to it next month.
The treasure at the bottom of the box will be symbolic keys to a Jeep Patriot donated by the New York Jeep Dealers' Association. Carolyn Blashek, Operation Gratitude's founder, will receive the keys to include in the package during a ceremony planned for July 16 in New York.
The package, which was packed as part of Operation Gratitude's fourth annual "Patriot Drive," will ship from New York shortly after the ceremony. It's expected to arrive at its undisclosed destination about the second week in August, Blashek said.
Who will receive this exceptional care package is a secret. Blashek knows, but she isn't talking.
"I will reveal nothing," she said.
The milestone moment comes on the heels of the California-based group presenting the recipient of its 200,000th care package with a Dodge Caliber. Marine Lance Cpl. Jordan Richards of St. Louis received the monumental package containing a card proclaiming "This Dodge Caliber is yours," while serving at Camp Fallujah, Iraq, last Christmas.
Operation Gratitude is a member of America Supports You, a Defense Department program connecting citizens and corporations with military personnel and their families serving at home and abroad.
'New Media' Program Seeks Opportunities in 24/7 Global Networks
By Tim Kilbride
Special to American Forces Press Service
June 21, 2007 – As evolving technology enables new links among people and speeds the flow of information around the globe, communications organizations must adapt to those changes to remain relevant and valuable to their core audiences, a Pentagon official said last week. "This shift toward global networking, customized information feeds and a 24/7 news cycle is occurring at a time when the U.S. military is facing increased rates of deployment and intense operational challenges," Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense for internal communications and public liaison, said during a June 13 interview.
"Our audience is moving worldwide, and frequently," Barber said. "To keep pace in its mission to inform and educate, the Department of Defense needs to regularly reevaluate how it conveys information to the military, the American public and the rest of the world."
As a means of extracting the benefits of the communications evolution, Barber oversaw the creation of the department's New Media directorate.
"New technology gives us the capability to reach the soldier no matter where they're deployed," she explained. "New Media was developed several months ago because we realized that technology is changing so quickly that it offered us new advancements and new tools to reach our audiences, and we needed to find ways to incorporate that into our job."
Since its launch in October, the New Media office has worked to develop personal relationships with military "bloggers" and online journalists, improve and expand the department's Web presence and usability, embrace content-sharing sites such as YouTube and MySpace, and make communications products available on devices like cell phones, iPods and MP3 players.
The office came about as part of a wider "public affairs transformation" being pushed by the department's leadership to make the military's primary public face more forward-leaning in its approach to disseminating information.
Barber characterized the global communications situation as moving quickly toward a point where media consumers will have so many choices and such pervasive news feeds that they will both seek and be able to personalize their interaction with information.
"Everybody wants their news and information in a customized format," she said.
But with research showing consumption patterns all over the map, she noted, "You can't embrace new media and divorce yourself from old media, or from the former ways of communicating."
Rather than an abrupt shift in how the military does business, Barber described the New Media program as a complement to the department's traditional public affairs outreach through television, radio and print channels.
Furthermore, blindly embracing every new technology is not the right path to take for an organization like the Defense Department, Barber said. She advocated an approach of research, trial and evaluation.
"It's an ever-evolving process. ... Our users are going to be our best critics," she noted.
"It's not so much right now knowing exactly what kind of product to create; it's putting the product that we have out there and starting to monitor it, and measure it, and research our audience, saying, 'Is this relevant? Is this useful? Is this moving the needle?'" Barber explained.
Part of the challenge, Barber said, is the vast range of audiences, locations and functions the Defense Department serves. The same basic communications mechanisms used to communicate with troops about their pay are also used to inform the media of briefing opportunities and the public about health concerns.
Given the scope of the effort, the department must be especially mindful of its audiences' priorities to make sure it is addressing them in the best way possible, Barber said.
"We have to be beyond smart when it comes to understanding how our customer needs to use our Web site, and what products they need, and the ways in which they need it," she explained.
That approach has guided how the department moved into engaging bloggers and online journalists. A centerpiece of the office's work, the "Bloggers' Roundtable" program -- in which citizen journalists are put into discussions with senior military and political leaders around the world -- was founded on the creation of individual relationships between the department and members of the online community.
"Relationships still matter, and it's one of the greatest challenges in this new media world -- when everything can be virtual - (that) if you're not continuing relationships with your customer, you're going to miss the boat," Barber explained.
One of the chief tasks before the New Media team is discovering the best way to utilize technology to forge individual relationships between the department's wealth of information and each member of its diverse audience, Barber said.
The key is to design the department's Web presence to allow for a personalized experience, she observed.
"What you'll see in the future for us is that when I log on to DoD.mil it will look very different than when (somebody else) logs on to DoD.mil, because you're going to care about (different) things if you're in the Army or you're in the Navy. You're going to care about things today that as a government employee aren't important to me. In addition, you're going to care about something six months from now when you're deployed in Iraq," Barber said.
"People probably get tired of hearing me talk about how you've got to customize, but I think that's what we see happening and where we're heading with our Web enterprise," she noted. "Military life changes constantly."
An interim step, and a tenet of new media management, is the integration of several of the department's communications programs to make information accessible to the troops however and whenever they choose to receive it, Barber said.
She gave the example of content sharing and collective distribution channels among the Pentagon Channel internal military television network, the department's primary Web site (DefenseLink.mil), and the New Media office's own internally produced content.
Each piece of content points to the others, Barber explained. For instance, a Pentagon Channel program might be available through DefenseLink, a New Media roundtable would be available as a podcast through the Pentagon Channel's Web site, or footage of the secretary of defense might be available as a video clip able to be dropped onto a public Web site through the office's DoDvClips.mil site, a military-specific file-sharing site.
"It's like taking three strands and braiding (them)," Barber said. "But in a year from now, it had better look like taking three ingredients and putting them into a bowl and mixing them so that you can't tell the difference. That's where we've got to go."
To fully embrace the new media mindset, the department needs to overcome individual offices' sense of ownership and the general habit of stove-piping information, Barber said.
"We don't think about the Pentagon Channel, we don't think about the Web site, we don't think about New Media. We think about our communication enterprise," she noted. "So we've done great, our team has done great, but we are just scratching the surface of what real integration looks like."
Feedback on the new media program has been extremely positive, Barber said. In many cases, she noted, the fact that the Office of the Secretary of Defense has taken the lead on delving into new technologies has inspired its subordinate commands to make their own ventures into new media.
She gave the example of Multinational Force Iraq moving to post its own videos onto YouTube.com.
The sheer number of blogs and Web sites, and the viral spread of information on the Internet, makes gathering specific measures of effectiveness difficult, Barber said, but she gains confidence from subjective measures like MNF-I also constructing a YouTube page, or other federal government agencies inquiring about how to approach new media on their end.
"The real metric for us is we started a trend for the entire Department of Defense that has empowered other people to do it," she said. "Those are the types of metrics (we use), even though they're not quantitative. They're qualitative in that we understand that things are changing, and people want to know more, and the want to follow the lead."
The fact that technology keeps evolving means the department can never become complacent in its operations without risking irrelevancy, Barber said. Still, she reiterated the need for discipline in leaping into new avenues of communication.
Using the example of cell phones and short message services, Barber explained research shows they are the primary means of receiving information for many people in the world, but that finding doesn't necessarily imply the Defense Department should jump full-force into that technology.
"You know my philosophy: just because you can doesn't mean you should," she said. "But I don't know the answer to that question, because it continues to evolve and we have to keep looking at our audience and saying, 'Where are they? Where are they today and what tools are they using?'"
Barber expressed confidence, however, in the department's posturing via new media advances and its readiness to adapt as necessary to continue best serving its primary audiences.
"I think the Internet is just beginning. The blogger technology in the Internet platform is really just a starting place for us. So three years from now, what we're calling 'new media' today, we won't even be doing," she said.
"It's hard to know what the future is, but what I'm proud about (is) our New Media team, the Department of Defense, is structured and ready and agile to embrace the new technology as it happens."
(Tim Kilbride is assigned to New Media, American Forces Information Service.)
Special to American Forces Press Service
June 21, 2007 – As evolving technology enables new links among people and speeds the flow of information around the globe, communications organizations must adapt to those changes to remain relevant and valuable to their core audiences, a Pentagon official said last week. "This shift toward global networking, customized information feeds and a 24/7 news cycle is occurring at a time when the U.S. military is facing increased rates of deployment and intense operational challenges," Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense for internal communications and public liaison, said during a June 13 interview.
"Our audience is moving worldwide, and frequently," Barber said. "To keep pace in its mission to inform and educate, the Department of Defense needs to regularly reevaluate how it conveys information to the military, the American public and the rest of the world."
As a means of extracting the benefits of the communications evolution, Barber oversaw the creation of the department's New Media directorate.
"New technology gives us the capability to reach the soldier no matter where they're deployed," she explained. "New Media was developed several months ago because we realized that technology is changing so quickly that it offered us new advancements and new tools to reach our audiences, and we needed to find ways to incorporate that into our job."
Since its launch in October, the New Media office has worked to develop personal relationships with military "bloggers" and online journalists, improve and expand the department's Web presence and usability, embrace content-sharing sites such as YouTube and MySpace, and make communications products available on devices like cell phones, iPods and MP3 players.
The office came about as part of a wider "public affairs transformation" being pushed by the department's leadership to make the military's primary public face more forward-leaning in its approach to disseminating information.
Barber characterized the global communications situation as moving quickly toward a point where media consumers will have so many choices and such pervasive news feeds that they will both seek and be able to personalize their interaction with information.
"Everybody wants their news and information in a customized format," she said.
But with research showing consumption patterns all over the map, she noted, "You can't embrace new media and divorce yourself from old media, or from the former ways of communicating."
Rather than an abrupt shift in how the military does business, Barber described the New Media program as a complement to the department's traditional public affairs outreach through television, radio and print channels.
Furthermore, blindly embracing every new technology is not the right path to take for an organization like the Defense Department, Barber said. She advocated an approach of research, trial and evaluation.
"It's an ever-evolving process. ... Our users are going to be our best critics," she noted.
"It's not so much right now knowing exactly what kind of product to create; it's putting the product that we have out there and starting to monitor it, and measure it, and research our audience, saying, 'Is this relevant? Is this useful? Is this moving the needle?'" Barber explained.
Part of the challenge, Barber said, is the vast range of audiences, locations and functions the Defense Department serves. The same basic communications mechanisms used to communicate with troops about their pay are also used to inform the media of briefing opportunities and the public about health concerns.
Given the scope of the effort, the department must be especially mindful of its audiences' priorities to make sure it is addressing them in the best way possible, Barber said.
"We have to be beyond smart when it comes to understanding how our customer needs to use our Web site, and what products they need, and the ways in which they need it," she explained.
That approach has guided how the department moved into engaging bloggers and online journalists. A centerpiece of the office's work, the "Bloggers' Roundtable" program -- in which citizen journalists are put into discussions with senior military and political leaders around the world -- was founded on the creation of individual relationships between the department and members of the online community.
"Relationships still matter, and it's one of the greatest challenges in this new media world -- when everything can be virtual - (that) if you're not continuing relationships with your customer, you're going to miss the boat," Barber explained.
One of the chief tasks before the New Media team is discovering the best way to utilize technology to forge individual relationships between the department's wealth of information and each member of its diverse audience, Barber said.
The key is to design the department's Web presence to allow for a personalized experience, she observed.
"What you'll see in the future for us is that when I log on to DoD.mil it will look very different than when (somebody else) logs on to DoD.mil, because you're going to care about (different) things if you're in the Army or you're in the Navy. You're going to care about things today that as a government employee aren't important to me. In addition, you're going to care about something six months from now when you're deployed in Iraq," Barber said.
"People probably get tired of hearing me talk about how you've got to customize, but I think that's what we see happening and where we're heading with our Web enterprise," she noted. "Military life changes constantly."
An interim step, and a tenet of new media management, is the integration of several of the department's communications programs to make information accessible to the troops however and whenever they choose to receive it, Barber said.
She gave the example of content sharing and collective distribution channels among the Pentagon Channel internal military television network, the department's primary Web site (DefenseLink.mil), and the New Media office's own internally produced content.
Each piece of content points to the others, Barber explained. For instance, a Pentagon Channel program might be available through DefenseLink, a New Media roundtable would be available as a podcast through the Pentagon Channel's Web site, or footage of the secretary of defense might be available as a video clip able to be dropped onto a public Web site through the office's DoDvClips.mil site, a military-specific file-sharing site.
"It's like taking three strands and braiding (them)," Barber said. "But in a year from now, it had better look like taking three ingredients and putting them into a bowl and mixing them so that you can't tell the difference. That's where we've got to go."
To fully embrace the new media mindset, the department needs to overcome individual offices' sense of ownership and the general habit of stove-piping information, Barber said.
"We don't think about the Pentagon Channel, we don't think about the Web site, we don't think about New Media. We think about our communication enterprise," she noted. "So we've done great, our team has done great, but we are just scratching the surface of what real integration looks like."
Feedback on the new media program has been extremely positive, Barber said. In many cases, she noted, the fact that the Office of the Secretary of Defense has taken the lead on delving into new technologies has inspired its subordinate commands to make their own ventures into new media.
She gave the example of Multinational Force Iraq moving to post its own videos onto YouTube.com.
The sheer number of blogs and Web sites, and the viral spread of information on the Internet, makes gathering specific measures of effectiveness difficult, Barber said, but she gains confidence from subjective measures like MNF-I also constructing a YouTube page, or other federal government agencies inquiring about how to approach new media on their end.
"The real metric for us is we started a trend for the entire Department of Defense that has empowered other people to do it," she said. "Those are the types of metrics (we use), even though they're not quantitative. They're qualitative in that we understand that things are changing, and people want to know more, and the want to follow the lead."
The fact that technology keeps evolving means the department can never become complacent in its operations without risking irrelevancy, Barber said. Still, she reiterated the need for discipline in leaping into new avenues of communication.
Using the example of cell phones and short message services, Barber explained research shows they are the primary means of receiving information for many people in the world, but that finding doesn't necessarily imply the Defense Department should jump full-force into that technology.
"You know my philosophy: just because you can doesn't mean you should," she said. "But I don't know the answer to that question, because it continues to evolve and we have to keep looking at our audience and saying, 'Where are they? Where are they today and what tools are they using?'"
Barber expressed confidence, however, in the department's posturing via new media advances and its readiness to adapt as necessary to continue best serving its primary audiences.
"I think the Internet is just beginning. The blogger technology in the Internet platform is really just a starting place for us. So three years from now, what we're calling 'new media' today, we won't even be doing," she said.
"It's hard to know what the future is, but what I'm proud about (is) our New Media team, the Department of Defense, is structured and ready and agile to embrace the new technology as it happens."
(Tim Kilbride is assigned to New Media, American Forces Information Service.)
Woman VMI Cadet Prepares for Iraq Duty
By Amy May
Special to American Forces Press Service
June 21, 2007 – Like many college students, Sarah McIntosh will work an internship this summer. She won't be working in the mailroom, at a bank or acting as a gofer for an advertising agency, though. Her internship will be a little more intense and adventurous. The Virginia Military Institute cadet is going to the Middle East with the Virginia National Guard's 429th Transportation Company. The 20-year-old specialist is the first woman VMI cadet to deploy.
She joined the Virginia Guard when she was in high school. She did not have to deploy with the 429th when it was activated because she is a student, but she chose to fulfill her Guard duties.
"I just want to get experience before I become an officer. I don't think you should be an officer until you've had some experience," she said.
The Guard will help her with that. The 429th will run transportation missions in Iraq, which is one of the more hazardous duties in the country.
McIntosh admitted to being afraid about some parts of what lies ahead. "Who wouldn't be?" she asked. "But it will also be exciting. I've never been in that situation before."
Her Guard membership has also benefited her college career by helping her complete the rigorous requirements at VMI, she said. Cadets undergo nine months of basic training, plus they attend regular college classes and have cadre time.
"Everything I learned in (Guard) basic, they re-taught at VMI. ... M-16, leadership, it was all review, but it was good," she said. "I crystallized it in my memory."
McIntosh decided she wanted to attend VMI when she was in the sixth grade and growing up in Lexington, Va., the home of VMI. She comes from a military family. Her parents are Air Force veterans, and her aunt and uncle were also in the military. Her older brother, Joe, also attends VMI and is also in the Army National Guard, but he plans go into the Air Force after graduation.
Her family is worried about her deployment, McIntosh said, but they also understand her desire to go, and they are excited for her. Her dad talked to the leaders of the 429th to make sure they are "watching out for his little girl," she said.
Although there are a few 18-year-olds in the 429th, McIntosh will be one of the youngest soldiers. She is a sophomore majoring in Spanish. McIntosh will graduate in 2008 and receive her commission to the Army, where she hopes to make her career. She plans to stay in the Guard until graduation and then revert to active duty.
Her tour of duty will benefit her military career in the long run, she believes, but right now, she is concentrating on training and preparing for the mission.
"I just want experience in general, and obviously to learn more about the military, get leadership skills and have a little fun if I can, such as being with my unit, being in a different country and driving the big trucks," she said.
VMI gave McIntosh permission to leave for active duty. The school has allowed cadets to participate in conflicts throughout history, beginning with the Civil War, where 10 cadets died on the battlefield.
The 180 soldiers of the 429th are training here for deployment later this summer, said Staff Sgt. Robert Thompson. They will drive 915s, the military semi trailers, on supply runs that could last one to four days. The soldiers initially will go to Kuwait, but Thompson said he's not sure exactly where they will be based in Iraq.
The training they are receiving is helpful, Thompson said. The soldiers are becoming familiar with the equipment and learning what to expect as far as improvised explosive devices and other threats are concerned.
"They're giving us good info. It's helpful," he said. Sgt. Channing Lynch was deployed in 2003 and has noticed a difference in the training.
"There are lots more hands-on activities this time," he said. IEDs were just becoming a threat as the soldiers were finishing their training four years ago, he said.
"We didn't hear much about them until we were there. We trained more for small-arms fire and mortars," he said.
At Camp Atterbury this summer, the soldiers will spend quite a bit of time learning to react to IED attacks, as well as sniper fire, mechanical failure and injuries they might encounter on a combat logistical patrol mission.
Spc. Zachary Adler, who is on his first deployment, said the soldiers are being trained for every possible scenario. He is especially impressed with the first aid training. The unit will have emergency medical personnel, he said, but other soldiers are learning how to give basic care to the wounded until the medics can take over. "It's good that everyone has some (first aid training)," he said.
The transportation mission is one of the most important in the military, Lynch said.
"Transportation is the backbone of the military. Without supplies, they would not be able to support themselves," he noted.
Thompson added that the 429th, which is made up of soldiers from several units, is banding together and is ready to take on the mission.
"It's something we volunteered to do. We have a lot of good unit cohesion, so we'll take care of each other," he said.
(Amy May is a staff reporter for The Crier at Camp Atterbury, Ind.)
Special to American Forces Press Service
June 21, 2007 – Like many college students, Sarah McIntosh will work an internship this summer. She won't be working in the mailroom, at a bank or acting as a gofer for an advertising agency, though. Her internship will be a little more intense and adventurous. The Virginia Military Institute cadet is going to the Middle East with the Virginia National Guard's 429th Transportation Company. The 20-year-old specialist is the first woman VMI cadet to deploy.
She joined the Virginia Guard when she was in high school. She did not have to deploy with the 429th when it was activated because she is a student, but she chose to fulfill her Guard duties.
"I just want to get experience before I become an officer. I don't think you should be an officer until you've had some experience," she said.
The Guard will help her with that. The 429th will run transportation missions in Iraq, which is one of the more hazardous duties in the country.
McIntosh admitted to being afraid about some parts of what lies ahead. "Who wouldn't be?" she asked. "But it will also be exciting. I've never been in that situation before."
Her Guard membership has also benefited her college career by helping her complete the rigorous requirements at VMI, she said. Cadets undergo nine months of basic training, plus they attend regular college classes and have cadre time.
"Everything I learned in (Guard) basic, they re-taught at VMI. ... M-16, leadership, it was all review, but it was good," she said. "I crystallized it in my memory."
McIntosh decided she wanted to attend VMI when she was in the sixth grade and growing up in Lexington, Va., the home of VMI. She comes from a military family. Her parents are Air Force veterans, and her aunt and uncle were also in the military. Her older brother, Joe, also attends VMI and is also in the Army National Guard, but he plans go into the Air Force after graduation.
Her family is worried about her deployment, McIntosh said, but they also understand her desire to go, and they are excited for her. Her dad talked to the leaders of the 429th to make sure they are "watching out for his little girl," she said.
Although there are a few 18-year-olds in the 429th, McIntosh will be one of the youngest soldiers. She is a sophomore majoring in Spanish. McIntosh will graduate in 2008 and receive her commission to the Army, where she hopes to make her career. She plans to stay in the Guard until graduation and then revert to active duty.
Her tour of duty will benefit her military career in the long run, she believes, but right now, she is concentrating on training and preparing for the mission.
"I just want experience in general, and obviously to learn more about the military, get leadership skills and have a little fun if I can, such as being with my unit, being in a different country and driving the big trucks," she said.
VMI gave McIntosh permission to leave for active duty. The school has allowed cadets to participate in conflicts throughout history, beginning with the Civil War, where 10 cadets died on the battlefield.
The 180 soldiers of the 429th are training here for deployment later this summer, said Staff Sgt. Robert Thompson. They will drive 915s, the military semi trailers, on supply runs that could last one to four days. The soldiers initially will go to Kuwait, but Thompson said he's not sure exactly where they will be based in Iraq.
The training they are receiving is helpful, Thompson said. The soldiers are becoming familiar with the equipment and learning what to expect as far as improvised explosive devices and other threats are concerned.
"They're giving us good info. It's helpful," he said. Sgt. Channing Lynch was deployed in 2003 and has noticed a difference in the training.
"There are lots more hands-on activities this time," he said. IEDs were just becoming a threat as the soldiers were finishing their training four years ago, he said.
"We didn't hear much about them until we were there. We trained more for small-arms fire and mortars," he said.
At Camp Atterbury this summer, the soldiers will spend quite a bit of time learning to react to IED attacks, as well as sniper fire, mechanical failure and injuries they might encounter on a combat logistical patrol mission.
Spc. Zachary Adler, who is on his first deployment, said the soldiers are being trained for every possible scenario. He is especially impressed with the first aid training. The unit will have emergency medical personnel, he said, but other soldiers are learning how to give basic care to the wounded until the medics can take over. "It's good that everyone has some (first aid training)," he said.
The transportation mission is one of the most important in the military, Lynch said.
"Transportation is the backbone of the military. Without supplies, they would not be able to support themselves," he noted.
Thompson added that the 429th, which is made up of soldiers from several units, is banding together and is ready to take on the mission.
"It's something we volunteered to do. We have a lot of good unit cohesion, so we'll take care of each other," he said.
(Amy May is a staff reporter for The Crier at Camp Atterbury, Ind.)
Pace Will Stay Focused on Supporting Troops in Combat
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
June 21, 2007 – The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said today he is going to stay focused on his job of providing the best military advice to the president, vice president, defense secretary and rest of the National Security Council until his term expires at the end of September. Marine Gen. Peter Pace spoke along with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates at a Pentagon news conference.
Reporters asked Pace about the fact that Gates did not nominate him for a second two-year term as chairman. Gates, saying he wanted to spare the military a divisive confirmation fight, recommended that President Bush nominate Navy Adm. Mike Mullen as chairman.
"I have had the great honor and privilege of serving first four years as vice chairman, now two years as chairman," Pace said.
He is chairman until midnight on Sept. 30, "and through midnight on 30 September, I'm going to do all that I can to stay focused on providing support to the troops who are in combat. And come 0001 on 1 October, if he's confirmed, Admiral Mike Mullen will pick up that responsibility, and I'm sure he'll be as honored to serve as I have been," Pace said.
Gates said it was a tough decision. "As I said at the time, that was a recommendation to the president that I made with great regret and that he accepted with reluctance," Gates said. "It had been my hope that I would have the opportunity to continue to serve with General Pace through the end of the administration."
But consultations with both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate convinced him that confirmation hearings for Pace would be focused on the past and "essentially reopen all of the issues of the past six years in a way that was not constructive for the country or for our men and women in uniform or, in my opinion, for General Pace himself," the secretary explained.
Gates said his decision to not renominate Pace is "just a recognition of reality, and also my belief that at this point, it is important for us all to look to the future and not to the past."
American Forces Press Service
June 21, 2007 – The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said today he is going to stay focused on his job of providing the best military advice to the president, vice president, defense secretary and rest of the National Security Council until his term expires at the end of September. Marine Gen. Peter Pace spoke along with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates at a Pentagon news conference.
Reporters asked Pace about the fact that Gates did not nominate him for a second two-year term as chairman. Gates, saying he wanted to spare the military a divisive confirmation fight, recommended that President Bush nominate Navy Adm. Mike Mullen as chairman.
"I have had the great honor and privilege of serving first four years as vice chairman, now two years as chairman," Pace said.
He is chairman until midnight on Sept. 30, "and through midnight on 30 September, I'm going to do all that I can to stay focused on providing support to the troops who are in combat. And come 0001 on 1 October, if he's confirmed, Admiral Mike Mullen will pick up that responsibility, and I'm sure he'll be as honored to serve as I have been," Pace said.
Gates said it was a tough decision. "As I said at the time, that was a recommendation to the president that I made with great regret and that he accepted with reluctance," Gates said. "It had been my hope that I would have the opportunity to continue to serve with General Pace through the end of the administration."
But consultations with both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate convinced him that confirmation hearings for Pace would be focused on the past and "essentially reopen all of the issues of the past six years in a way that was not constructive for the country or for our men and women in uniform or, in my opinion, for General Pace himself," the secretary explained.
Gates said his decision to not renominate Pace is "just a recognition of reality, and also my belief that at this point, it is important for us all to look to the future and not to the past."
Officials Discuss New U.S. Command with African Leaders
By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service
June 21, 2007 – Leaders in five African nations see the U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM, as a constructive approach to making the continent more stable, a senior Defense Department official told reporters at the Pentagon today. A delegation comprising officials from the departments of Defense and State and from the U.S. Agency for International Development met with leaders in Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Djibouti and the African Union last week to discuss the new unified combatant command the Defense Department is establishing in Africa.
"They saw AFRICOM's integrated approach as a more constructive way for the Department of Defense to partner with African organizations and help bring about long-term peace and security," said Ryan Henry, principal undersecretary of defense for policy.
Currently, the Defense Department divides responsibility for Africa among three combatant commands: European Command, Pacific Command and Central Command. AFRICOM will be a three-pronged defense, diplomatic and economic command effort focused solely on the continent, Henry said.
"We're ... taking the area of responsibility for the African continent and giving that to a single commander, who will worry 24 hours a day, seven days a week, just about African issues," Henry said.
Officials have not decided the where the new command's headquarters will be, nor have they named a commander, he said, but Henry confirmed that the four-star commander, once appointed, will serve in theater.
AFRICOM will better enable the Defense Department and other elements of the U.S. government to work in concert with more politically stable and economically prosperous African partners, Henry said. "It will also help in setting the conditions whereby humanitarian and developmental assistance can be used more effectively," he added.
During discussions, the African leaders identified counterterrorism as "a top security concern," Henry said.
"They were interested in how AFRICOM would help support their counterterrorism efforts, how current programs and initiatives would be impacted," he said. "We said that it was our intent not to make any dramatic changes as AFRICOM comes on line, but to see how we can be more effective by integrating civilian parts of the U.S. government that will be resident on AFRICOM's staff."
Leaders are committed to the Africa Union as the continent's common security structure, Henry said, and they advised the delegation that AFRICOM should work in harmony with the established body. "We responded that we were investigating on how best to do that, as AFRICOM's goal is not to lead the security efforts on the continent, but rather to support existing African countries and organizations take the lead and be successful," he said.
In October, AFRICOM is slated to be structured as a sub-unified command to European Command with some responsibilities. It is expected to be a fully unified command able to handle all responsibilities about a year later, Henry said.
This was Henry's second "consultation trip" to the continent, where he led delegation members in expressing AFRICOM's broad goals to their African counterparts. In April, a delegation met with leaders in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana and Senegal.
Gates, Pace Pledge to Fix Defense Mental Health System
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
June 21, 2007 – Current Defense Department mental health efforts fall significantly short of adequately serving servicemembers and their families, and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said fixing the program is an achievable vision. "This is something we can, will and must get fixed," Gates said during a Pentagon news conference today.
Gates said he has reviewed the findings of the Defense Mental Health Task Force. The group presented its findings June 15.
Gates said he supports the task force's recommendation to build a culture of support for psychological health in the department. He wants to remove the stigma some servicemembers feel in simply seeking mental health assistance.
"One recommendation I support and will aggressively pursue is removing the question about mental health treatment from the security clearance questionnaire," he said. "Too many (people) avoid seeking mental health help for fear of losing their security clearances."
The secretary said he has spoken about the mental health stigma issue with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and he said they will move forward with strong leadership. "Leaders at every level must follow suit," he said.
Joint Chiefs Chairman Marine Gen. Peter Pace said he and the service chiefs are energized on the issue. "We are intent on making sure we provide the proper leadership to make sure that everybody that needs any kind of assistance with mental health gets it," he said.
Federal law calls on the department to provide Congress a corrective action plan within six months of the submission of the report.
"I have no intention of waiting that long," Gates said. "I have directed that the action plan for the implementation of the 95 DoD Task Force recommendations be completed within 60 to 90 days."
Department officials also are looking at 331 further recommendations dealing with broad mental health issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries. Other studies continue, and Gates said he believes more recommendations will come before him.
A joint Defense Department and Department of Veterans Affairs team is working to address all the shortcomings in the mental health care servicemembers and their families receive, he said. "Jointly, we have already begun implementation of corrective actions and will continue this process until a fully responsive process is in place for our men and women," he said.
Gates spoke about his recent visit to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. He presented Purple Hearts to six servicemembers wounded in Iraq.
"It was a starkly moving and emotionally powerful reminder of the sacrifice these young men and women are making on our behalf," he said. "It is our moral obligation and duty to ensure they are properly cared for in mind, body and spirit when they return from the battlefield to the homeland they have pledged to defend."
American Forces Press Service
June 21, 2007 – Current Defense Department mental health efforts fall significantly short of adequately serving servicemembers and their families, and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said fixing the program is an achievable vision. "This is something we can, will and must get fixed," Gates said during a Pentagon news conference today.
Gates said he has reviewed the findings of the Defense Mental Health Task Force. The group presented its findings June 15.
Gates said he supports the task force's recommendation to build a culture of support for psychological health in the department. He wants to remove the stigma some servicemembers feel in simply seeking mental health assistance.
"One recommendation I support and will aggressively pursue is removing the question about mental health treatment from the security clearance questionnaire," he said. "Too many (people) avoid seeking mental health help for fear of losing their security clearances."
The secretary said he has spoken about the mental health stigma issue with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and he said they will move forward with strong leadership. "Leaders at every level must follow suit," he said.
Joint Chiefs Chairman Marine Gen. Peter Pace said he and the service chiefs are energized on the issue. "We are intent on making sure we provide the proper leadership to make sure that everybody that needs any kind of assistance with mental health gets it," he said.
Federal law calls on the department to provide Congress a corrective action plan within six months of the submission of the report.
"I have no intention of waiting that long," Gates said. "I have directed that the action plan for the implementation of the 95 DoD Task Force recommendations be completed within 60 to 90 days."
Department officials also are looking at 331 further recommendations dealing with broad mental health issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries. Other studies continue, and Gates said he believes more recommendations will come before him.
A joint Defense Department and Department of Veterans Affairs team is working to address all the shortcomings in the mental health care servicemembers and their families receive, he said. "Jointly, we have already begun implementation of corrective actions and will continue this process until a fully responsive process is in place for our men and women," he said.
Gates spoke about his recent visit to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. He presented Purple Hearts to six servicemembers wounded in Iraq.
"It was a starkly moving and emotionally powerful reminder of the sacrifice these young men and women are making on our behalf," he said. "It is our moral obligation and duty to ensure they are properly cared for in mind, body and spirit when they return from the battlefield to the homeland they have pledged to defend."
Airborne Laser Aircraft Slated to Provide Missile Defense
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
June 21, 2007 – A typical-looking 747 aircraft on the tarmac here today -- distinguishable from other 747s only by its glass, bulb-shaped nose -- could one day be the silver bullet that shoots ballistic missiles out of the sky. But what's revolutionary about the prototype Airborne Laser aircraft, which arrived last night after its first nonstop cross-country flight, is that it won't use bullets to take out its target, explained Air Force Col. John Daniels, program director.
It will use light.
"What makes this revolutionary is that you can engage targets at the speed of light - 186,000 miles per second," Daniels said. "So we can go from New York to Los Angeles before you can blink your eye. Think about that. You can't blink your eye faster than this weapon system or a beam of light goes across the country."
The Airborne Laser is being developed as an integral part of the ballistic missile defense system to protect the United States, its allies and its deployed troops against a ballistic missile attack, he explained. An advanced detection-and-tracking system, state-of-the-art optics and a high-energy laser would detect a missile launch and track it during the boost phase.
The world's largest turret assembly, encased in the glass-enclosed aircraft nose, would track the missile and determine a precise aim point. A laser would measure disturbances in the atmosphere and adjust the on-board optics to account for them.
Another laser would fire a beam - technically, a "megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser beam" - to zap the missile until it breaks apart.
As futuristic as this concept sounds, the Airborne Laser project is moving steadily forward. Flight tests on the Airborne Laser are slated to wrap up this summer at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
The chemical laser has had more than 70 successful firings over the past three years, and will be installed aboard the aircraft starting later this year in preparation for the first shootdown of a ballistic missile target, scheduled in mid-2009.
"We are going to put that big laser in the back ... and then we're ready to shoot a missile down," Daniels said. "So it's a pretty exciting time to be on the program. The biggest challenge we have right now is integration. The optics system is working. The battle management system works well. We even tracked an (intercontinental ballistic missile) with the sensors on the airplane. ... The laser works well on the ground."
Putting all that capability together and having it operate effectively is a much more significant step, he said.
"When you put those big pieces together, and you get the software talking to each other and the systems, that's not trivial. It's really an integration challenge," he said. "No miracles are needed, but the integration step is not easy."
Lessons learned from this initial prototype, with the tail number "0001," will be incorporated into a "production representative" model that is easier to operate and maintain and less expensive to build, he said. "That's the whole purpose of this plane, to give us those lessons learned so we know what to do different on the second airplane."
Ultimately, the Air Force hopes to have seven Airborne Laser aircraft. Plans call for them to be based in the United States, at a base with a long runway and the infrastructure needed to support large aircraft, Daniels said.
"But they would be forward-operated, depending upon the threat," Daniels aid. "If you had threats in multiple parts of the world, it is probably commonsensical that a commander may decide to send a few planes one place and a few planes somewhere else."
Aircraft would take off loaded with enough chemicals that, with aerial refueling, could get where they needed to be quickly and be able to operate for as long as possible. A single chemical load would be able to destroy "many, many missiles," Daniels said.
The Missile Defense Agency manages the Airborne Laser program, which is based at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.
The Airborne Laser is slated to return tonight to Edwards for more testing.
American Forces Press Service
June 21, 2007 – A typical-looking 747 aircraft on the tarmac here today -- distinguishable from other 747s only by its glass, bulb-shaped nose -- could one day be the silver bullet that shoots ballistic missiles out of the sky. But what's revolutionary about the prototype Airborne Laser aircraft, which arrived last night after its first nonstop cross-country flight, is that it won't use bullets to take out its target, explained Air Force Col. John Daniels, program director.
It will use light.
"What makes this revolutionary is that you can engage targets at the speed of light - 186,000 miles per second," Daniels said. "So we can go from New York to Los Angeles before you can blink your eye. Think about that. You can't blink your eye faster than this weapon system or a beam of light goes across the country."
The Airborne Laser is being developed as an integral part of the ballistic missile defense system to protect the United States, its allies and its deployed troops against a ballistic missile attack, he explained. An advanced detection-and-tracking system, state-of-the-art optics and a high-energy laser would detect a missile launch and track it during the boost phase.
The world's largest turret assembly, encased in the glass-enclosed aircraft nose, would track the missile and determine a precise aim point. A laser would measure disturbances in the atmosphere and adjust the on-board optics to account for them.
Another laser would fire a beam - technically, a "megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser beam" - to zap the missile until it breaks apart.
As futuristic as this concept sounds, the Airborne Laser project is moving steadily forward. Flight tests on the Airborne Laser are slated to wrap up this summer at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
The chemical laser has had more than 70 successful firings over the past three years, and will be installed aboard the aircraft starting later this year in preparation for the first shootdown of a ballistic missile target, scheduled in mid-2009.
"We are going to put that big laser in the back ... and then we're ready to shoot a missile down," Daniels said. "So it's a pretty exciting time to be on the program. The biggest challenge we have right now is integration. The optics system is working. The battle management system works well. We even tracked an (intercontinental ballistic missile) with the sensors on the airplane. ... The laser works well on the ground."
Putting all that capability together and having it operate effectively is a much more significant step, he said.
"When you put those big pieces together, and you get the software talking to each other and the systems, that's not trivial. It's really an integration challenge," he said. "No miracles are needed, but the integration step is not easy."
Lessons learned from this initial prototype, with the tail number "0001," will be incorporated into a "production representative" model that is easier to operate and maintain and less expensive to build, he said. "That's the whole purpose of this plane, to give us those lessons learned so we know what to do different on the second airplane."
Ultimately, the Air Force hopes to have seven Airborne Laser aircraft. Plans call for them to be based in the United States, at a base with a long runway and the infrastructure needed to support large aircraft, Daniels said.
"But they would be forward-operated, depending upon the threat," Daniels aid. "If you had threats in multiple parts of the world, it is probably commonsensical that a commander may decide to send a few planes one place and a few planes somewhere else."
Aircraft would take off loaded with enough chemicals that, with aerial refueling, could get where they needed to be quickly and be able to operate for as long as possible. A single chemical load would be able to destroy "many, many missiles," Daniels said.
The Missile Defense Agency manages the Airborne Laser program, which is based at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.
The Airborne Laser is slated to return tonight to Edwards for more testing.
Camp Humphreys Development Rises from Rice Paddies
By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service
June 21, 2007 – As the U.S. military transforms its forces from a cold-war formation in South Korea, nowhere is the growth more visible than here, in what used to be considered a "sleepy little camp with not much happening," officials here said. Army Command Sgt. Maj. William J. Gainey, senior enlisted advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, toured the camp today, talking to troops, reviewing the camp's building progress and receiving an update on its plans for growth.
As one of only two planned "enduring hubs," Camp Humphreys is expected to grow by as much as 500 percent by 2012, rocketing from its current 3,500-troop population to more than 17,000, and making it the largest installation on the peninsula.
Combined with family members, civilian staff and contractors, the population is expected to grow to more than 44,000, according to official estimates.
Camp Humphreys is in Pyeongtaek City, about 55 miles, or a two-hour bus ride, south of Seoul. It's home to U.S. Army Garrison Command and the Area III Support Activity of the U.S. Army Installation Management Command Korea.
Nicknamed "The Hump," until about five years ago, the installation offered little to the troops serving here. Most of the troops traveled about 25 miles north to Osan Air Base for the nicer amenities.
Now, the biggest problem the camp faces is not being able to build fast enough. In Rubik's-cube fashion, engineers have to plan which buildings to tear down and which to build to maintain consistency in services. Nearly 95 percent of the current buildings will be torn down and replaced, said Fred Davis Jr., who is assigned to the Korea Relocation Program Office of the Army Relocation Branch for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Far East District.
Already in the past handful of years, troops serving on the aviation installation have seen new family housing, new barracks, a water park and a new post exchange and commissary complex. The intent, officials here said, is to turn the installation into a "tour of choice."
This would be a drastic turn from a decade ago, when it was largely a single-servicemember's tour, offering family housing only to those in senior leadership.
Under the transformation plan, all U.S. troops in South Korea will move south of Seoul. Officials will turn over to the South Korean government 104 camps and bases scattered across the country. Overall, by 2012, officials plan to reduce the 48,000-acre U.S. footprint in the country by two-thirds and reduce the number of troops from 37,500 to about 25,000.
New barracks are springing up on the installation where once only tents existed for training exercises. Because of the condensed population, official are building high-rise complexes designed for servicemembers to live, work, eat and play all within walking distance.
By 2008, officials will have consolidated much of the 2nd Infantry Division, closed 36 camps and bases, and started developing the two enduring hubs. Camp Humphreys will be one hub combined with neighboring Osan Air Base, and Daegu to the southeast will be the other, with its neighboring Marine Camp Mujuk and the Navy's fleet activities base at Chinhae.
Camp Humphreys will become home to both U.S. Forces Korea and 8th U.S. Army headquarters, as well as a host of other tenant units.
Joint training facilities are planned for Kunsan Air Base in the lower southwest portion of South Korea, two just south of Seoul and one to the north near the demilitarized zone.
The Camp Humphreys family member population is expected to grow by almost 1,000 percent, from about 1,400 to more than 13,000.
In response, engineers are planning multiple housing projects that will offer parks, shopping, dining and entertainment, also all within walking distance.
Two apartment-style family housing units opened recently, with one more scheduled to open in September. Future housing plans call for 33 more 12-story buildings housing up to 72 families each.
Three elementary schools are planned, as well as a middle school and a high school. Currently, the camp has an elementary school and a middle school. High school students ride buses north to Osan.
Seventeen building projects worth more than $542 million are in design at Camp Humphreys. Fourteen projects now under construction are worth more than $215 million.
The cost of the relocation is largely being paid for by the by Republic of Korean government. It is shelling out half of the $8.25 billion needed for the planned 630 new facilities at Camp Humphreys. Other Korean government funding will pay another 22 percent, and private investments make up about 21 percent. The U.S. military construction costs are just under 10 percent.
In exchange, the Korean government is getting back prime real estate in and around Seoul and in other hot spots in the country.
Camp Humphreys sits on about 1,200 acres now, but in three phases of land-use agreements, it's expected to grow to more than 3,500 acres. All agreements are in the works, officials said, and the deals should be closed by the end of summer.
Military officials believe these changes, combined with extended tours and more authorized family accompaniments will help remove the decades-old image of isolated duty in run-down camps and will encourage servicemembers and families to welcome a tour of duty here.
"The move to Camp Humphreys, the consolidation of U.S. forces here in Korea, will allow us to concentrate our precious resources and increase the quality of life of our servicemembers a hundredfold," said Army Command Sgt. Maj. Barry C. Wheeler, U.S. Forces Korea and 8th U.S. Army command sergeant major.
Wheeler first came to Korea in 1975 and has returned over the years to serve in various positions here, including as the 2nd Infantry Division command sergeant major. When he was first stationed here, Wheeler said, he stayed in open-bay Quonset huts with "35 of his closest friends."
He said the best thing about serving here is the warmth and hospitality of the Korean people.
"If you ever get a soldier, sailor, airman or Marine to Korea, they don't want to leave. It's because of the warmth of the people," he said. "They understand why we are here. They want us to be here."
Wheeler said there is nothing hard about serving in Korea, except for being without your family and possibly your vehicle.
In response, USFK officials are expected to soon ask the Defense Department for more than double the allowance for current command-sponsored families, from 2,800 to nearly 6,000. Some 3,000 non-command-sponsored families already are here, Wheeler said. Still, more than 90 percent of the troops serving here do so unaccompanied.
Congress has to authorize lengthening the tours here, and the Korean government also has a say.
Wheeler said many servicemembers don't want to add another one-year tour away from their families after serving tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"When our servicemembers get back from a deployment from Iraq or Afghanistan and then find themselves on orders for Korea, they are going to (want to) bring their families. We may as well get it ready for them," Wheeler said.
"They are bringing them because the country is a great place to serve. And they are electing with their pocketbooks to expend those resources to bring their families because they are not going to be without them," he said.
Non-command-sponsored family members are not authorized family housing and are placed in other military programs on a space-available basis. There are also other health care benefit differences between command-sponsored family members and unsponsored ones.
"Not a day goes by that we don't think about the quality of life for our servicemembers," Wheeler said. "Our men and women serving here should know that the concern their leaders should have for their family members is there, and we look for ways to improve it every opportunity we get."
American Forces Press Service
June 21, 2007 – As the U.S. military transforms its forces from a cold-war formation in South Korea, nowhere is the growth more visible than here, in what used to be considered a "sleepy little camp with not much happening," officials here said. Army Command Sgt. Maj. William J. Gainey, senior enlisted advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, toured the camp today, talking to troops, reviewing the camp's building progress and receiving an update on its plans for growth.
As one of only two planned "enduring hubs," Camp Humphreys is expected to grow by as much as 500 percent by 2012, rocketing from its current 3,500-troop population to more than 17,000, and making it the largest installation on the peninsula.
Combined with family members, civilian staff and contractors, the population is expected to grow to more than 44,000, according to official estimates.
Camp Humphreys is in Pyeongtaek City, about 55 miles, or a two-hour bus ride, south of Seoul. It's home to U.S. Army Garrison Command and the Area III Support Activity of the U.S. Army Installation Management Command Korea.
Nicknamed "The Hump," until about five years ago, the installation offered little to the troops serving here. Most of the troops traveled about 25 miles north to Osan Air Base for the nicer amenities.
Now, the biggest problem the camp faces is not being able to build fast enough. In Rubik's-cube fashion, engineers have to plan which buildings to tear down and which to build to maintain consistency in services. Nearly 95 percent of the current buildings will be torn down and replaced, said Fred Davis Jr., who is assigned to the Korea Relocation Program Office of the Army Relocation Branch for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Far East District.
Already in the past handful of years, troops serving on the aviation installation have seen new family housing, new barracks, a water park and a new post exchange and commissary complex. The intent, officials here said, is to turn the installation into a "tour of choice."
This would be a drastic turn from a decade ago, when it was largely a single-servicemember's tour, offering family housing only to those in senior leadership.
Under the transformation plan, all U.S. troops in South Korea will move south of Seoul. Officials will turn over to the South Korean government 104 camps and bases scattered across the country. Overall, by 2012, officials plan to reduce the 48,000-acre U.S. footprint in the country by two-thirds and reduce the number of troops from 37,500 to about 25,000.
New barracks are springing up on the installation where once only tents existed for training exercises. Because of the condensed population, official are building high-rise complexes designed for servicemembers to live, work, eat and play all within walking distance.
By 2008, officials will have consolidated much of the 2nd Infantry Division, closed 36 camps and bases, and started developing the two enduring hubs. Camp Humphreys will be one hub combined with neighboring Osan Air Base, and Daegu to the southeast will be the other, with its neighboring Marine Camp Mujuk and the Navy's fleet activities base at Chinhae.
Camp Humphreys will become home to both U.S. Forces Korea and 8th U.S. Army headquarters, as well as a host of other tenant units.
Joint training facilities are planned for Kunsan Air Base in the lower southwest portion of South Korea, two just south of Seoul and one to the north near the demilitarized zone.
The Camp Humphreys family member population is expected to grow by almost 1,000 percent, from about 1,400 to more than 13,000.
In response, engineers are planning multiple housing projects that will offer parks, shopping, dining and entertainment, also all within walking distance.
Two apartment-style family housing units opened recently, with one more scheduled to open in September. Future housing plans call for 33 more 12-story buildings housing up to 72 families each.
Three elementary schools are planned, as well as a middle school and a high school. Currently, the camp has an elementary school and a middle school. High school students ride buses north to Osan.
Seventeen building projects worth more than $542 million are in design at Camp Humphreys. Fourteen projects now under construction are worth more than $215 million.
The cost of the relocation is largely being paid for by the by Republic of Korean government. It is shelling out half of the $8.25 billion needed for the planned 630 new facilities at Camp Humphreys. Other Korean government funding will pay another 22 percent, and private investments make up about 21 percent. The U.S. military construction costs are just under 10 percent.
In exchange, the Korean government is getting back prime real estate in and around Seoul and in other hot spots in the country.
Camp Humphreys sits on about 1,200 acres now, but in three phases of land-use agreements, it's expected to grow to more than 3,500 acres. All agreements are in the works, officials said, and the deals should be closed by the end of summer.
Military officials believe these changes, combined with extended tours and more authorized family accompaniments will help remove the decades-old image of isolated duty in run-down camps and will encourage servicemembers and families to welcome a tour of duty here.
"The move to Camp Humphreys, the consolidation of U.S. forces here in Korea, will allow us to concentrate our precious resources and increase the quality of life of our servicemembers a hundredfold," said Army Command Sgt. Maj. Barry C. Wheeler, U.S. Forces Korea and 8th U.S. Army command sergeant major.
Wheeler first came to Korea in 1975 and has returned over the years to serve in various positions here, including as the 2nd Infantry Division command sergeant major. When he was first stationed here, Wheeler said, he stayed in open-bay Quonset huts with "35 of his closest friends."
He said the best thing about serving here is the warmth and hospitality of the Korean people.
"If you ever get a soldier, sailor, airman or Marine to Korea, they don't want to leave. It's because of the warmth of the people," he said. "They understand why we are here. They want us to be here."
Wheeler said there is nothing hard about serving in Korea, except for being without your family and possibly your vehicle.
In response, USFK officials are expected to soon ask the Defense Department for more than double the allowance for current command-sponsored families, from 2,800 to nearly 6,000. Some 3,000 non-command-sponsored families already are here, Wheeler said. Still, more than 90 percent of the troops serving here do so unaccompanied.
Congress has to authorize lengthening the tours here, and the Korean government also has a say.
Wheeler said many servicemembers don't want to add another one-year tour away from their families after serving tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"When our servicemembers get back from a deployment from Iraq or Afghanistan and then find themselves on orders for Korea, they are going to (want to) bring their families. We may as well get it ready for them," Wheeler said.
"They are bringing them because the country is a great place to serve. And they are electing with their pocketbooks to expend those resources to bring their families because they are not going to be without them," he said.
Non-command-sponsored family members are not authorized family housing and are placed in other military programs on a space-available basis. There are also other health care benefit differences between command-sponsored family members and unsponsored ones.
"Not a day goes by that we don't think about the quality of life for our servicemembers," Wheeler said. "Our men and women serving here should know that the concern their leaders should have for their family members is there, and we look for ways to improve it every opportunity we get."
Walter Reed Weapons Training System Gets Troops Back to Shooting
By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service
June 21, 2007 – Marine Lance Corporal Eric Frazier, a reservist out of Nashville Tenn., thought his life had stopped -- not when his humvee was hit by a bomb in Iraq last year, but when he woke up and saw his arm in a cast and his legs gone. For the lanky country boy who had hunted the hills of Tennessee since he was old enough to carry a Red Ryder BB gun, being outside -- in the woods, walking the trails -- was his life.
"The first thing I woke up and I seen my arm was in a big ol' Styrofoam holder thing and I had lost my legs I was like, 'I'm just not going to be able to shoot,'" Frazier said.
"Your life kind of stops. You're like, 'What am I going to now?'" he said.
But across the street from the bustling physical and occupational therapy rooms at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here, there is a small metal building where Frazier was able to learn to shoot again and to gain at least that part of his life back.
The Fire Arms Training System is part of occupational therapy at the center. It teaches servicemembers how to adjust to their injuries and how to fire military weapons despite new limitations. A computer system runs scenarios, and servicemembers fire a variety of electronically integrated weapons at a large screen. The results are digitally tallied in a computer, and progress is charted.
With its combat-based scenarios, the system helps some feel like soldiers and Marines again, but for Frazier and others who grew up shooting, it also provides an opportunity to feel normal again.
The program was the first therapeutic program with fire arms for military medicine, program manager Barry Yancosek said.
"From the research that we've done, we're using the best system to provide the most advanced therapy that the military is offering with firearms," he said.
Until recently, Walter Reed was the only site offering the program, but now the newly opened Center for the Intrepid at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, also offers the same therapy.
The program started as a pilot in June 2005, costing only about $100,000. The Fire Arms Training System is a commercial program sold worldwide. Each software package is tailored for the purchaser. The Army's qualification standards and pop-up target ranges are built into the program for the center, as well as some video-based combat scenarios.
Patients start with basic marksmanship training and practice shooting a "zero," or a close three-round shot grouping, then move on to the Army standard pop-up target lanes.
Yancosek said he initially wanted to see if soldiers suffering upper extremity injuries could learn to re-qualify with their weapons, a basic common task in the Army.
After 10 hours of training using the system, the first patients participating showed a 30 percent increase in their overall score, hitting an average of 90 percent of the targets. Only one in the program failed to qualify to the Army standard, Yancosek said.
"A lot of them say that this is one therapy that makes them feel like a soldier or a Marine again," he said.
An avid outdoorsman for more than 30 years, Yancosek said he found hunting was a common interest among most of the shooters. That led to taking groups of patients on hunting trips as part of their occupational therapy.
"A lot of these young men were hunters long before they said, 'I do' to the service, so it was a natural progression for them to want to go out and hunt," Yancosek said.
In the past two years, groups of patients have gone on many hunts, including duck, goose, elk, antelope, turkey and deer hunts, he said.
"That's the awesome thing about this," Frazier said. "It lets me know that ... I can still shoot even like I am now, and I'm not even healed yet."
Frazier recently bought parts to make his own 1,000-yard rifle. A competitive shooter before he joined the Marine Corps, Frazier was the top shot in his company at boot camp. Now, despite his injuries, he plans to return to the land owned by his great grandmother and return to the sport he loves.
American Forces Press Service
June 21, 2007 – Marine Lance Corporal Eric Frazier, a reservist out of Nashville Tenn., thought his life had stopped -- not when his humvee was hit by a bomb in Iraq last year, but when he woke up and saw his arm in a cast and his legs gone. For the lanky country boy who had hunted the hills of Tennessee since he was old enough to carry a Red Ryder BB gun, being outside -- in the woods, walking the trails -- was his life.
"The first thing I woke up and I seen my arm was in a big ol' Styrofoam holder thing and I had lost my legs I was like, 'I'm just not going to be able to shoot,'" Frazier said.
"Your life kind of stops. You're like, 'What am I going to now?'" he said.
But across the street from the bustling physical and occupational therapy rooms at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here, there is a small metal building where Frazier was able to learn to shoot again and to gain at least that part of his life back.
The Fire Arms Training System is part of occupational therapy at the center. It teaches servicemembers how to adjust to their injuries and how to fire military weapons despite new limitations. A computer system runs scenarios, and servicemembers fire a variety of electronically integrated weapons at a large screen. The results are digitally tallied in a computer, and progress is charted.
With its combat-based scenarios, the system helps some feel like soldiers and Marines again, but for Frazier and others who grew up shooting, it also provides an opportunity to feel normal again.
The program was the first therapeutic program with fire arms for military medicine, program manager Barry Yancosek said.
"From the research that we've done, we're using the best system to provide the most advanced therapy that the military is offering with firearms," he said.
Until recently, Walter Reed was the only site offering the program, but now the newly opened Center for the Intrepid at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, also offers the same therapy.
The program started as a pilot in June 2005, costing only about $100,000. The Fire Arms Training System is a commercial program sold worldwide. Each software package is tailored for the purchaser. The Army's qualification standards and pop-up target ranges are built into the program for the center, as well as some video-based combat scenarios.
Patients start with basic marksmanship training and practice shooting a "zero," or a close three-round shot grouping, then move on to the Army standard pop-up target lanes.
Yancosek said he initially wanted to see if soldiers suffering upper extremity injuries could learn to re-qualify with their weapons, a basic common task in the Army.
After 10 hours of training using the system, the first patients participating showed a 30 percent increase in their overall score, hitting an average of 90 percent of the targets. Only one in the program failed to qualify to the Army standard, Yancosek said.
"A lot of them say that this is one therapy that makes them feel like a soldier or a Marine again," he said.
An avid outdoorsman for more than 30 years, Yancosek said he found hunting was a common interest among most of the shooters. That led to taking groups of patients on hunting trips as part of their occupational therapy.
"A lot of these young men were hunters long before they said, 'I do' to the service, so it was a natural progression for them to want to go out and hunt," Yancosek said.
In the past two years, groups of patients have gone on many hunts, including duck, goose, elk, antelope, turkey and deer hunts, he said.
"That's the awesome thing about this," Frazier said. "It lets me know that ... I can still shoot even like I am now, and I'm not even healed yet."
Frazier recently bought parts to make his own 1,000-yard rifle. A competitive shooter before he joined the Marine Corps, Frazier was the top shot in his company at boot camp. Now, despite his injuries, he plans to return to the land owned by his great grandmother and return to the sport he loves.
Vice Chairman Answers Soldiers' Questions
By Tech. Sgt. Adam M. Stump, USAF
Special to American Forces Press Service
June 21, 2007 – The vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff met with soldiers of the 1st Cavalry Division here yesterday, thanking them for their service and telling them better equipment is on the way. Navy Adm. Edmund P. Giambastiani met with the soldiers to find out if they had the tools needed to do their job and to answer questions about issues in Iraq.
After having breakfast with the soldiers, Giambastiani started off by thanking them for what they do every day.
"You're doing incredibly important work and, as you can imagine, the world is watching exactly what's going on here," he said. "They're watching literally every minute of the day. ... It's not just bad folks watching, but all the folks back home who want to know how you're doing."
In addition to being there to thank them, the admiral said, he wanted to see if the troops had the right equipment to help them be successful.
One of the issues the admiral was asked about was the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected, or MRAP, vehicle. Giambastiani, who led a May trip by the Joint Requirements Oversight Council to Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., to observe MRAP testing, said the vehicles were on the way to the theater as quickly as they could be procured. He said the vehicles will come via air at first, then, when production increases, by a 27-day shipping process.
The admiral also addressed a question from a soldier who was concerned the MRAP might simply go to the lowest bidder.
"I sign the military requirements for MRAP," Giambastiani said. "It doesn't say anything in there about going to the cheapest bidder. It says you have to pass certain tests."
Giambastiani also cautioned that the vehicle is not an end-all solution: "I think the human eyeball and, to be frank with you, the day-to-day patrolling soldier is still the most effective weapon" against insurgents.
The admiral said the Defense Department is working on various other projects, to include providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance techniques, unmanned aerial vehicles and manned aircraft to go after targets, track bomb makers and interdict weapons delivery.
Giambastiani said the department also is procuring a number of 106-foot towers to be used for persistent surveillance. The towers, which have a generator and can be towed by a 5-ton truck, provide the capability of using infrared to "look out" for the enemy, he said.
The admiral also talked about translation software that is currently being tested that will allow users to speak English into a handheld device and get Arabic translation.
(Air Force Tech. Sgt. Adam M. Stump is assigned to the Joint Staff public affairs office.)
Special to American Forces Press Service
June 21, 2007 – The vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff met with soldiers of the 1st Cavalry Division here yesterday, thanking them for their service and telling them better equipment is on the way. Navy Adm. Edmund P. Giambastiani met with the soldiers to find out if they had the tools needed to do their job and to answer questions about issues in Iraq.
After having breakfast with the soldiers, Giambastiani started off by thanking them for what they do every day.
"You're doing incredibly important work and, as you can imagine, the world is watching exactly what's going on here," he said. "They're watching literally every minute of the day. ... It's not just bad folks watching, but all the folks back home who want to know how you're doing."
In addition to being there to thank them, the admiral said, he wanted to see if the troops had the right equipment to help them be successful.
One of the issues the admiral was asked about was the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected, or MRAP, vehicle. Giambastiani, who led a May trip by the Joint Requirements Oversight Council to Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., to observe MRAP testing, said the vehicles were on the way to the theater as quickly as they could be procured. He said the vehicles will come via air at first, then, when production increases, by a 27-day shipping process.
The admiral also addressed a question from a soldier who was concerned the MRAP might simply go to the lowest bidder.
"I sign the military requirements for MRAP," Giambastiani said. "It doesn't say anything in there about going to the cheapest bidder. It says you have to pass certain tests."
Giambastiani also cautioned that the vehicle is not an end-all solution: "I think the human eyeball and, to be frank with you, the day-to-day patrolling soldier is still the most effective weapon" against insurgents.
The admiral said the Defense Department is working on various other projects, to include providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance techniques, unmanned aerial vehicles and manned aircraft to go after targets, track bomb makers and interdict weapons delivery.
Giambastiani said the department also is procuring a number of 106-foot towers to be used for persistent surveillance. The towers, which have a generator and can be towed by a 5-ton truck, provide the capability of using infrared to "look out" for the enemy, he said.
The admiral also talked about translation software that is currently being tested that will allow users to speak English into a handheld device and get Arabic translation.
(Air Force Tech. Sgt. Adam M. Stump is assigned to the Joint Staff public affairs office.)
'Virtual Installation' Aims to Extend Big-Base Support to Small-Town America
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
June 21, 2007 – Laura Stultz may have never been in the military herself, but she's had lots of experience holding down the home front, far from the nearest military installation, when her soldier deploys. Now, with her soldier-husband serving as chief of the Army Reserve, Stultz feels a personal responsibility to make things smoother for other Army Reserve spouses who keep the home fires burning during deployments.
One way she hopes to do that is through a concept she's dubbed "the virtual installation." The idea, Army Lt. Gen. Jack Stultz explained, is to make the information, services and support offered at big bases available to families either through the Internet or through local soldier support centers.
The general acknowledged that all spouses face hardships when their loved ones deploy - regardless of whether they're active-duty, National Guard or Reserve. But unlike active-duty families who can turn to their local post for help if they need it, Army Reserve families often live far from an Army post and don't know how to tap into the services offered, Laura reminded her husband.
"She said, 'If I am living on an installation, I have Army Community Services, child and youth services, legal support, medical support, the Red Cross. I can go to Army Emergency Relief if I need to get help," Stultz said. He paused, then continued her point: "But if I am in Pocatella, Idaho, who do I turn to?"
That quandary led Laura Stultz to come up with the virtual installation concept.
"In our vision, we are really community-based, not installation-based," Stultz said. "And (Laura) says every community needs to be a virtual installation. She says, 'I want everybody living in small-town America to have the same support as if they were living on an installation.'"
Stultz sees two ways the virtual installation concept might work. It could be Internet-based, enabling Army Reserve families to use their computers to get the information, support and services they'd find at an Army post.
Another idea is to set up offices around the country, staffed by volunteers to assist military families. Stultz said he envisions "soldier support centers" around the country, possibly sharing space with the local American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars or other organization.
"Everybody in the community would know where the soldier support center is, and they'd know that if you're in the military and you need help, that's where you go," he said.
Stultz said the virtual installation would service active-duty as well as reserve-component families from all branches of the military.
"It's bigger than the Army Reserve," Stultz said, noting that families of active-duty troops often leave their post and return to their hometowns when their loved one is deployed. "The idea would be, if you're in the military and in that community, that's where you can go to get help," he said.
Stultz called the virtual installation an important step toward his goal of taking better care of Army Reserve families. After all, he said, the Army Reserve recruits soldiers, but it retains families. "And we have to do a better job of reaching out to those families," he said.
And if anybody understands families' needs, it's someone who's been in their shoes, like his own wife.
"She has lived it," Stultz said. "She has had to be the one at home to take care of the kids and all at various stages when they were growing up. So she has lived it."
Since Stultz left active duty to join the Army Reserve in 1979, he was deployed for Operation Desert Storm in 1990 and 1991, for Operation Joint Endeavor in 1997 and for operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom from 2002 to 2004.
Each time, Laura Stultz took on the household chores her husband typically handled and singlehandedly cared for the couple's four children.
"And now that she's the wife of the chief of the Army Reserve, she says, 'I have an obligation, because I want to make it better for the wives of the soldiers out there than it was for me," Stultz said of his wife.
American Forces Press Service
June 21, 2007 – Laura Stultz may have never been in the military herself, but she's had lots of experience holding down the home front, far from the nearest military installation, when her soldier deploys. Now, with her soldier-husband serving as chief of the Army Reserve, Stultz feels a personal responsibility to make things smoother for other Army Reserve spouses who keep the home fires burning during deployments.
One way she hopes to do that is through a concept she's dubbed "the virtual installation." The idea, Army Lt. Gen. Jack Stultz explained, is to make the information, services and support offered at big bases available to families either through the Internet or through local soldier support centers.
The general acknowledged that all spouses face hardships when their loved ones deploy - regardless of whether they're active-duty, National Guard or Reserve. But unlike active-duty families who can turn to their local post for help if they need it, Army Reserve families often live far from an Army post and don't know how to tap into the services offered, Laura reminded her husband.
"She said, 'If I am living on an installation, I have Army Community Services, child and youth services, legal support, medical support, the Red Cross. I can go to Army Emergency Relief if I need to get help," Stultz said. He paused, then continued her point: "But if I am in Pocatella, Idaho, who do I turn to?"
That quandary led Laura Stultz to come up with the virtual installation concept.
"In our vision, we are really community-based, not installation-based," Stultz said. "And (Laura) says every community needs to be a virtual installation. She says, 'I want everybody living in small-town America to have the same support as if they were living on an installation.'"
Stultz sees two ways the virtual installation concept might work. It could be Internet-based, enabling Army Reserve families to use their computers to get the information, support and services they'd find at an Army post.
Another idea is to set up offices around the country, staffed by volunteers to assist military families. Stultz said he envisions "soldier support centers" around the country, possibly sharing space with the local American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars or other organization.
"Everybody in the community would know where the soldier support center is, and they'd know that if you're in the military and you need help, that's where you go," he said.
Stultz said the virtual installation would service active-duty as well as reserve-component families from all branches of the military.
"It's bigger than the Army Reserve," Stultz said, noting that families of active-duty troops often leave their post and return to their hometowns when their loved one is deployed. "The idea would be, if you're in the military and in that community, that's where you can go to get help," he said.
Stultz called the virtual installation an important step toward his goal of taking better care of Army Reserve families. After all, he said, the Army Reserve recruits soldiers, but it retains families. "And we have to do a better job of reaching out to those families," he said.
And if anybody understands families' needs, it's someone who's been in their shoes, like his own wife.
"She has lived it," Stultz said. "She has had to be the one at home to take care of the kids and all at various stages when they were growing up. So she has lived it."
Since Stultz left active duty to join the Army Reserve in 1979, he was deployed for Operation Desert Storm in 1990 and 1991, for Operation Joint Endeavor in 1997 and for operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom from 2002 to 2004.
Each time, Laura Stultz took on the household chores her husband typically handled and singlehandedly cared for the couple's four children.
"And now that she's the wife of the chief of the Army Reserve, she says, 'I have an obligation, because I want to make it better for the wives of the soldiers out there than it was for me," Stultz said of his wife.
Walter Reed Gait Laboratory Puts Amputee Troops Back in Step
By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service
June 20, 2007 – As today's highly active servicemember amputees push their prosthetic devices to the limits, a lab at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here is gathering data that will help designers make the prostheses better, while enabling faster, more efficient recoveries for patients. At the Gait Lab, patient information is gathered using a high-tech, state-of-the-art computer system that combines reflective markers and cameras to gather data on how amputees move using their prostheses. Using oxygen and heart-rate monitors, the lab also can gather data on how much energy it takes for amputees to walk using prostheses.
"The patients want to put on a prosthesis and be able to feel comfortable walking, transition to running if they need to, and do whatever other activities they want," said Barri Schnall, the physical therapist at the lab. "At this point, if they want to sprint or they want to run, they need to change out of their walking prosthesis and into their running leg or foot. When we give feedback to the prosthetic companies, they can use the data that we have and the information that we are providing to help achieve the goal of providing a universal type of prosthesis."
To gather the movement data, reflective markers are placed at key joints on the patient, including the legs, arms and hips. Encircling the room are eight specialized cameras with light-emitting diodes, known as LEDs, that flash at 120 times per second and record in true three-dimensional volume the reflections of the markers in the various positions as the patient walks. The angle and position of every joint -- ankles, hips, arms, pelvis, etc. -- is recorded in real time and expressed on a stick figure rendition of the patient walking.
In addition, two force plates in the floor collect "kinetic" data, recording how hard the patient's feet land on the floor and how much power is generated.
All measurements are taken in an area that is about 20 feet long, 6 feet wide and 7 feet high.
Once the data is collected in the computer, it can be compared to the motion of a non-amputee, or even data from the patient's non-amputee side, allowing better analysis by the rehabilitation team.
"We can tell what deviations they have and what compensations they are using to help them walk," lab engineer Brian Baum said. "We take this information and then sit down with the patient, the prosthetist, the physical therapist and the physicians to give them more objective information on ways they can better treat the patient."
The team members work together to decide if it is better to change the alignment of the prosthesis, change out a component, make changes to the patient's physical therapy, or a combination of the approaches.
A digital video camera also records the patient's movements allowing a third-person view of movement patterns. Schnall said the variety of data and media is looked at individually and collectively to best help the patient.
"Everybody has a different way of learning," Schnall said. "For some patients, the graphs really hit home. They'll say, 'Oh, my physical therapist has been telling me this, but thought I was doing it right.'
"Some people find the video is helpful. They have never seen themselves walk as an amputee other than in the mirror, but that really doesn't hit home sometimes," she said.
Patients' movements are typically recorded and monitored over the course of three or more visits. The first is when the patient starts walking using a prosthesis, the second is when they are walking independently, and then finally just before the patient's discharge. Patients can be evaluated on an as-needed basis as well, if, for example, they are having pain during walking. Gait analysis can help narrow the source and identify possible solutions.
The system is accurate in identifying where the reflective markers are to within one millimeter. This helps when detecting finer movement trends, Baum said.
"Our eyes can't pick up that little movement. This system can. "(At first) you can pick up large issues, but when they start walking pretty well, this system really takes over and can look at the finishing touches," Baum said.
More information is better when it comes down to helping patients learn how to use their prosthesis in active lifestyles, he said.
"We're just trying to take as much information as possible from everybody, ... put it all together, ... and then use this information to help treat them and improve the rehabilitation process," he said.
"This group is really pushing the envelope and really pushing the prosthetic companies to design more robust and more functional prostheses because these guys want to return to duty. They want to return to a very active lifestyle. They want to run marathons. They want to do things that a lot of amputees haven't been able to do in the past, partly because of the technological limitations," Baum said.
A new lab being built in the Amputee Care Center at the hospital will offer a much larger space with greater flexibility, allowing more data to be collected from activities such as running. The new lab will include a virtual-reality system with a large free-moving platform that allows patients to work through on-screen simulations such as standing in a boat or riding on a subway. This will help patients learn to develop muscles needed to function in the normal world, Baum said.
Data gathered by the lab allows experts to analyze, develop solutions, improve rehab processes, and improve prosthetic designs and orthopedic interventions, Schnall said. She said the investment in the technology is a small price compared to sacrifices the servicemembers have made and that using this technology to expedite their rehab process is critical.
"We owe them the best technology and the best opportunity to return in a timely fashion to be able to do whatever they want to do and whatever they were able to do (pre-injury)," she said.
American Forces Press Service
June 20, 2007 – As today's highly active servicemember amputees push their prosthetic devices to the limits, a lab at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here is gathering data that will help designers make the prostheses better, while enabling faster, more efficient recoveries for patients. At the Gait Lab, patient information is gathered using a high-tech, state-of-the-art computer system that combines reflective markers and cameras to gather data on how amputees move using their prostheses. Using oxygen and heart-rate monitors, the lab also can gather data on how much energy it takes for amputees to walk using prostheses.
"The patients want to put on a prosthesis and be able to feel comfortable walking, transition to running if they need to, and do whatever other activities they want," said Barri Schnall, the physical therapist at the lab. "At this point, if they want to sprint or they want to run, they need to change out of their walking prosthesis and into their running leg or foot. When we give feedback to the prosthetic companies, they can use the data that we have and the information that we are providing to help achieve the goal of providing a universal type of prosthesis."
To gather the movement data, reflective markers are placed at key joints on the patient, including the legs, arms and hips. Encircling the room are eight specialized cameras with light-emitting diodes, known as LEDs, that flash at 120 times per second and record in true three-dimensional volume the reflections of the markers in the various positions as the patient walks. The angle and position of every joint -- ankles, hips, arms, pelvis, etc. -- is recorded in real time and expressed on a stick figure rendition of the patient walking.
In addition, two force plates in the floor collect "kinetic" data, recording how hard the patient's feet land on the floor and how much power is generated.
All measurements are taken in an area that is about 20 feet long, 6 feet wide and 7 feet high.
Once the data is collected in the computer, it can be compared to the motion of a non-amputee, or even data from the patient's non-amputee side, allowing better analysis by the rehabilitation team.
"We can tell what deviations they have and what compensations they are using to help them walk," lab engineer Brian Baum said. "We take this information and then sit down with the patient, the prosthetist, the physical therapist and the physicians to give them more objective information on ways they can better treat the patient."
The team members work together to decide if it is better to change the alignment of the prosthesis, change out a component, make changes to the patient's physical therapy, or a combination of the approaches.
A digital video camera also records the patient's movements allowing a third-person view of movement patterns. Schnall said the variety of data and media is looked at individually and collectively to best help the patient.
"Everybody has a different way of learning," Schnall said. "For some patients, the graphs really hit home. They'll say, 'Oh, my physical therapist has been telling me this, but thought I was doing it right.'
"Some people find the video is helpful. They have never seen themselves walk as an amputee other than in the mirror, but that really doesn't hit home sometimes," she said.
Patients' movements are typically recorded and monitored over the course of three or more visits. The first is when the patient starts walking using a prosthesis, the second is when they are walking independently, and then finally just before the patient's discharge. Patients can be evaluated on an as-needed basis as well, if, for example, they are having pain during walking. Gait analysis can help narrow the source and identify possible solutions.
The system is accurate in identifying where the reflective markers are to within one millimeter. This helps when detecting finer movement trends, Baum said.
"Our eyes can't pick up that little movement. This system can. "(At first) you can pick up large issues, but when they start walking pretty well, this system really takes over and can look at the finishing touches," Baum said.
More information is better when it comes down to helping patients learn how to use their prosthesis in active lifestyles, he said.
"We're just trying to take as much information as possible from everybody, ... put it all together, ... and then use this information to help treat them and improve the rehabilitation process," he said.
"This group is really pushing the envelope and really pushing the prosthetic companies to design more robust and more functional prostheses because these guys want to return to duty. They want to return to a very active lifestyle. They want to run marathons. They want to do things that a lot of amputees haven't been able to do in the past, partly because of the technological limitations," Baum said.
A new lab being built in the Amputee Care Center at the hospital will offer a much larger space with greater flexibility, allowing more data to be collected from activities such as running. The new lab will include a virtual-reality system with a large free-moving platform that allows patients to work through on-screen simulations such as standing in a boat or riding on a subway. This will help patients learn to develop muscles needed to function in the normal world, Baum said.
Data gathered by the lab allows experts to analyze, develop solutions, improve rehab processes, and improve prosthetic designs and orthopedic interventions, Schnall said. She said the investment in the technology is a small price compared to sacrifices the servicemembers have made and that using this technology to expedite their rehab process is critical.
"We owe them the best technology and the best opportunity to return in a timely fashion to be able to do whatever they want to do and whatever they were able to do (pre-injury)," she said.
Army Secretary Nominee Affirms Commitment to Troops, Families
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
June 20, 2007 – With more than 140,000 soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, "we can never take our eye off the ball," the Army secretary designate told a Senate committee yesterday, but he also reaffirmed that taking care of soldiers and families remains his top priority. Pete Geren, acting secretary of the Army since March, told the Senate Armed Services Committee he's committed to being an advocate for the men and women in uniform and the families who stand by them and to "make sure their voices are heard."
"I've watched soldiers, sailors and airmen go off to war, and I've watched the families stand steadfast and unwavering in their support of their departed loved ones and live with the uncertainty of whether he or she would return home," he said.
The certainty they live with, he said, is knowing that they'll miss celebrating birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, graduations and other important events as a family, as well as the regular ups and downs of everyday life. It was difficult when deployments were 12 months, he said, and even more so with extensions to 15 months. Geren said he's too often watched families live with the loss of their loved one who didn't return. "I've been inspired by the selfless service of our soldiers and humbled by the sacrifice in their families," he said.
The country "cannot do enough" to support these troops and their families, Geren said, and he promised to continue working on their behalf as Army secretary.
"When I came before you seeking confirmation as undersecretary of the Army (in February 2006), I told you my top priority would be taking care of soldiers and their families," he told the committee. "I reaffirm that commitment today with a greater understanding of that responsibility."
Part of that promise, he said, means ensuring troops get the training, equipment and leadership they need to wage the war on terror and defend themselves.
"They count on their Army leadership back home to move the bureaucracy on the home front," he said. "They count on their secretary and their chief to stand up for them, get them what they need when they need it.
"We must act with urgency every day to meet their needs," he said.
That's particularly important, he said, at a time when "we must expect that our future offers an era of persistent conflict."
"We will continue to ask much of the Army family," he said, noting that more than half of all soldiers are married, and more than 700,000 children have soldier parents.
"We must meet the needs of our families - provide them with a quality of life comparable to the quality of their service and sacrifice," he said. "It's the right thing to do, and the future of our all-volunteer force depends on it."
American Forces Press Service
June 20, 2007 – With more than 140,000 soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, "we can never take our eye off the ball," the Army secretary designate told a Senate committee yesterday, but he also reaffirmed that taking care of soldiers and families remains his top priority. Pete Geren, acting secretary of the Army since March, told the Senate Armed Services Committee he's committed to being an advocate for the men and women in uniform and the families who stand by them and to "make sure their voices are heard."
"I've watched soldiers, sailors and airmen go off to war, and I've watched the families stand steadfast and unwavering in their support of their departed loved ones and live with the uncertainty of whether he or she would return home," he said.
The certainty they live with, he said, is knowing that they'll miss celebrating birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, graduations and other important events as a family, as well as the regular ups and downs of everyday life. It was difficult when deployments were 12 months, he said, and even more so with extensions to 15 months. Geren said he's too often watched families live with the loss of their loved one who didn't return. "I've been inspired by the selfless service of our soldiers and humbled by the sacrifice in their families," he said.
The country "cannot do enough" to support these troops and their families, Geren said, and he promised to continue working on their behalf as Army secretary.
"When I came before you seeking confirmation as undersecretary of the Army (in February 2006), I told you my top priority would be taking care of soldiers and their families," he told the committee. "I reaffirm that commitment today with a greater understanding of that responsibility."
Part of that promise, he said, means ensuring troops get the training, equipment and leadership they need to wage the war on terror and defend themselves.
"They count on their Army leadership back home to move the bureaucracy on the home front," he said. "They count on their secretary and their chief to stand up for them, get them what they need when they need it.
"We must act with urgency every day to meet their needs," he said.
That's particularly important, he said, at a time when "we must expect that our future offers an era of persistent conflict."
"We will continue to ask much of the Army family," he said, noting that more than half of all soldiers are married, and more than 700,000 children have soldier parents.
"We must meet the needs of our families - provide them with a quality of life comparable to the quality of their service and sacrifice," he said. "It's the right thing to do, and the future of our all-volunteer force depends on it."
Teens' Program Keeps Troops Connected
By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service
June 20, 2007 – Two Massachusetts teens are working to turn Americans' unwanted cell phones into more than 12 million minutes of prepaid talk time for the nation's troops. "Cell Phones for Soldiers is the original (cell phone) recycling program created to benefit the troops and provide free prepaid calling cards and communication assistance to military members and their families," said Brittany Bergquist, one of the group's founders.
Brittany, 16, and her brother, Robbie, 15, began this endeavor in April 2004 with $21 of their own savings. Since then, they've provided more than 250,000 prepaid calling cards, equivalent to 2.5 million minutes of talk time, mainly with the cash they receive by recycling unwanted cell phones.
"Ultimately, we would like to provide free satellite phones for all military personnel serving throughout the world so that they don't have to rely on getting to a landline to call home," Brittany said.
The duo has discovered their goal will be costly. They're hoping to raise more than $9 million in the next five years to fund this and other new programs. One such program would provide video phones so deployed servicemembers and their families can see each other on a more regular basis.
Since the teens have been collecting phones for recycling, Liberty Tax has come on board, offering its nationwide locations as phone drop-off sites. The tax preparer's locations are just some of the more than 5,000 sites where donors can drop off unwanted phones. Communications giant AT&T will begin collecting phones at all of its company-owned wireless stores in the United States on July 4.
In their effort to support the troops, the Bergquists discovered their program benefits the world as a whole, Brittany said.
"The great thing about Cell Phones for Soldiers has been a boost to the morale of the troops, and it has also kept toxic chemicals out of our landfills throughout the country," she said. "It's an easy way for people to do a great thing for our military while protecting our environment."
Cell Phone for Soldiers is a member of America Supports You, and has realized many benefits from its membership in the Defense Department program. America Supports You connects citizens and corporations with military personnel and their families serving at home and abroad.
"America Supports You has helped to spread the word about Cell Phone for Soldiers through (its) newsletter and articles on (its) Web site," Brittany said, adding America Supports You also has helped her and her brother make important military connections.
"When we needed a contact in the Coast Guard, (America Supports You) was able to put us in touch with top level officials who could help us distribute our phone cards," she said.
The Bergquists know their group has shown that no matter how people feel about the war, "We all care about our troops and the sacrifices that they're making."
"We will continue Cell Phone for Soldiers as long as there are troops deployed so that they can communicate with their loved ones for free," Brittany said.
American Forces Press Service
June 20, 2007 – Two Massachusetts teens are working to turn Americans' unwanted cell phones into more than 12 million minutes of prepaid talk time for the nation's troops. "Cell Phones for Soldiers is the original (cell phone) recycling program created to benefit the troops and provide free prepaid calling cards and communication assistance to military members and their families," said Brittany Bergquist, one of the group's founders.
Brittany, 16, and her brother, Robbie, 15, began this endeavor in April 2004 with $21 of their own savings. Since then, they've provided more than 250,000 prepaid calling cards, equivalent to 2.5 million minutes of talk time, mainly with the cash they receive by recycling unwanted cell phones.
"Ultimately, we would like to provide free satellite phones for all military personnel serving throughout the world so that they don't have to rely on getting to a landline to call home," Brittany said.
The duo has discovered their goal will be costly. They're hoping to raise more than $9 million in the next five years to fund this and other new programs. One such program would provide video phones so deployed servicemembers and their families can see each other on a more regular basis.
Since the teens have been collecting phones for recycling, Liberty Tax has come on board, offering its nationwide locations as phone drop-off sites. The tax preparer's locations are just some of the more than 5,000 sites where donors can drop off unwanted phones. Communications giant AT&T will begin collecting phones at all of its company-owned wireless stores in the United States on July 4.
In their effort to support the troops, the Bergquists discovered their program benefits the world as a whole, Brittany said.
"The great thing about Cell Phones for Soldiers has been a boost to the morale of the troops, and it has also kept toxic chemicals out of our landfills throughout the country," she said. "It's an easy way for people to do a great thing for our military while protecting our environment."
Cell Phone for Soldiers is a member of America Supports You, and has realized many benefits from its membership in the Defense Department program. America Supports You connects citizens and corporations with military personnel and their families serving at home and abroad.
"America Supports You has helped to spread the word about Cell Phone for Soldiers through (its) newsletter and articles on (its) Web site," Brittany said, adding America Supports You also has helped her and her brother make important military connections.
"When we needed a contact in the Coast Guard, (America Supports You) was able to put us in touch with top level officials who could help us distribute our phone cards," she said.
The Bergquists know their group has shown that no matter how people feel about the war, "We all care about our troops and the sacrifices that they're making."
"We will continue Cell Phone for Soldiers as long as there are troops deployed so that they can communicate with their loved ones for free," Brittany said.
Defense Official: No Plans to Extend Army Deployments
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
June 20, 2007 – A senior defense official cautioned today against reading too much into Army secretary nominee Pete Geren's statement yesterday that the Army hasn't ruled out extending deployments for troops in Iraq. Bryan Whitman, deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, emphasized today that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates' deployment policy stands. Gates announced April 11 that all soldiers in the U.S. Central Command area of operations "will deploy for not more than 15 months and return home for not less than 12 months."
"And at this point, there is no plan to deviate from the policy," Whitman said.
Whitman responded to reporters' questions about statements Geren made during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
When asked by senators how long the Army will maintain the 15-month deployment policy, and if there's any chance it could be extended longer, Geren said the Army leadership is evaluating a wide range of options for Iraq. "It's too early to look into the next year, but for the Army, we have to begin to plan," he told the committee. "We have to look into our options."
Extending combat tours in Iraq is one option, Geren said, but others include relying more heavily on Army Reserve and National Guard members or other services.
Geren said the Army is committed to meeting requirements set forth by Adm. William J. "Fox" Fallon, the U.S. Central Command commander. "We have been able to do so up until now, and we will continue to do so," he said.
Whitman said today that the Army secretary has to balance the requirements of recruiting, training and equipping forces for the combatant commander, while also sustaining the force over an extended period of time.
Recognizing that it's impossible to predict conclusively what any one combatant commander will need - let alone multiple combatant commanders - the services must plan for "any number of contingencies at any time," Whitman said.
That planning looks at every conceivable possibility -- "worst-case scenarios, best-case scenarios, most dangerous scenarios, most likely scenarios" - and applies force management concepts to all, he said.
"I would tell you that you would be hard-pressed to find somebody that is going to rule out anything, as we are a nation at war with a certain amount of uncertainty with respect to what the requirements may be in the future," Whitman said.
Geren called the decision to extend deployments to 15 months "the better of two tough choices." Far worse, he told the Senate committee, would have been to wait until the last minute, when troops were about to return home, to extend them.
That's what happened last summer, when the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team - since reflagged as the 25th Infantry Division's 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team - got word that they were being extended. The brigade was in the throes of redeploying, and some unit members had already returned home to Alaska when they learned that the Army extended their deployment four months.
Geren acknowledged yesterday that longer tours are difficult for soldiers as well as their families. "I appreciate the burden that it puts on soldiers and their families," he said. "We were asking a lot before. With this, we're asking more."
That makes it all the more important, he said, that the Army ensures it meets their needs and looks out for their quality of life. "You can destroy an army by burning the soldier out or burning the family out," he said.
American Forces Press Service
June 20, 2007 – A senior defense official cautioned today against reading too much into Army secretary nominee Pete Geren's statement yesterday that the Army hasn't ruled out extending deployments for troops in Iraq. Bryan Whitman, deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, emphasized today that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates' deployment policy stands. Gates announced April 11 that all soldiers in the U.S. Central Command area of operations "will deploy for not more than 15 months and return home for not less than 12 months."
"And at this point, there is no plan to deviate from the policy," Whitman said.
Whitman responded to reporters' questions about statements Geren made during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
When asked by senators how long the Army will maintain the 15-month deployment policy, and if there's any chance it could be extended longer, Geren said the Army leadership is evaluating a wide range of options for Iraq. "It's too early to look into the next year, but for the Army, we have to begin to plan," he told the committee. "We have to look into our options."
Extending combat tours in Iraq is one option, Geren said, but others include relying more heavily on Army Reserve and National Guard members or other services.
Geren said the Army is committed to meeting requirements set forth by Adm. William J. "Fox" Fallon, the U.S. Central Command commander. "We have been able to do so up until now, and we will continue to do so," he said.
Whitman said today that the Army secretary has to balance the requirements of recruiting, training and equipping forces for the combatant commander, while also sustaining the force over an extended period of time.
Recognizing that it's impossible to predict conclusively what any one combatant commander will need - let alone multiple combatant commanders - the services must plan for "any number of contingencies at any time," Whitman said.
That planning looks at every conceivable possibility -- "worst-case scenarios, best-case scenarios, most dangerous scenarios, most likely scenarios" - and applies force management concepts to all, he said.
"I would tell you that you would be hard-pressed to find somebody that is going to rule out anything, as we are a nation at war with a certain amount of uncertainty with respect to what the requirements may be in the future," Whitman said.
Geren called the decision to extend deployments to 15 months "the better of two tough choices." Far worse, he told the Senate committee, would have been to wait until the last minute, when troops were about to return home, to extend them.
That's what happened last summer, when the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team - since reflagged as the 25th Infantry Division's 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team - got word that they were being extended. The brigade was in the throes of redeploying, and some unit members had already returned home to Alaska when they learned that the Army extended their deployment four months.
Geren acknowledged yesterday that longer tours are difficult for soldiers as well as their families. "I appreciate the burden that it puts on soldiers and their families," he said. "We were asking a lot before. With this, we're asking more."
That makes it all the more important, he said, that the Army ensures it meets their needs and looks out for their quality of life. "You can destroy an army by burning the soldier out or burning the family out," he said.
Scam Claiming Red Cross Connection Targets Military Families
American Forces Press Service
June 20, 2007 – The Federal Trade Commission is warning consumers about an identity-theft scam targeting families of military members. A caller, claiming to work for the Red Cross, notifies an individual that their family member has been injured while on duty. To get immediate aid to the injured servicemember, the caller says, paperwork must be completed, and personal information must be verified.
The FTC, the nation's consumer protection agency, says this scheme is a variation of "phishing" - a technique identity thieves use to get personal or financial information from unwary consumers. The identity thief claims to represent a trusted source - a bank, a government agency, or in this case, the American Red Cross - to get someone to divulge their personal information.
American Red Cross representatives typically do not contact military members or dependents directly and almost always go through a commander or first sergeant. Officials urge military family members not to give out any personal information over the phone if contacted by unknown individuals, including confirmation that their spouse is deployed.
Red Cross representatives contact military members or dependents directly only in response to an emergency message initiated by a family member. The Red Cross does not report any type of casualty information to family members; the Defense Department will contact families directly about family members' injuries.
(Compiled from Federal Trade Commission and American Red Cross news releases.)
June 20, 2007 – The Federal Trade Commission is warning consumers about an identity-theft scam targeting families of military members. A caller, claiming to work for the Red Cross, notifies an individual that their family member has been injured while on duty. To get immediate aid to the injured servicemember, the caller says, paperwork must be completed, and personal information must be verified.
The FTC, the nation's consumer protection agency, says this scheme is a variation of "phishing" - a technique identity thieves use to get personal or financial information from unwary consumers. The identity thief claims to represent a trusted source - a bank, a government agency, or in this case, the American Red Cross - to get someone to divulge their personal information.
American Red Cross representatives typically do not contact military members or dependents directly and almost always go through a commander or first sergeant. Officials urge military family members not to give out any personal information over the phone if contacted by unknown individuals, including confirmation that their spouse is deployed.
Red Cross representatives contact military members or dependents directly only in response to an emergency message initiated by a family member. The Red Cross does not report any type of casualty information to family members; the Defense Department will contact families directly about family members' injuries.
(Compiled from Federal Trade Commission and American Red Cross news releases.)
Soldier Gets His Kicks on Tae Kwon Do Team
By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service
June 20, 2007 – Like most other soldiers, Army Sgt. Jessie Jones gets up about 5:30 a.m. every day for Army physical training with his unit. A brisk three-mile run and some push-ups and sit-ups get his morning going. But for Jones and his unit, morning PT is only a warm-up. After everyone else has hit the showers and gone to work, Jones and his team are back in the gym - for their real workout.
Jones is the team captain for an elite 2nd Infantry Division Tae Kwon Do demonstration team that will spend the rest of the day kicking, jumping, flipping and punching, sweating bucket-loads and going home in pain.
Boards are broken using their heads, hands and feet, and the stunts they perform are circus-like in their acrobatic performances.
A mortar man in the Army, Korea is the first assignment for Jones. He has been in for more than three years and has spent time on a few of the Army camps north of Seoul and about two months in the demilitarized zone.
The 23-year-old from a small country town east of Charlotte, N.C., joined the Army looking for adventure. He never dreamed he could spend his days practicing his first love - the martial arts.
"I have to admit, I was one of those crazy martial arts kids," he said. "It's one thing that I just really loved."
Jones has been learning martial arts since he was 10 years old and holds a third-degree black belt in Shotokan, a street form of karate. He also has a couple of years of kickboxing under his belt.
"I can't imagine me doing much else. It's not just learning self-defense or how to beat people up. It's about self-improvement," he said.
The 23-member team is made up of soldiers from across the division, representing all battalions. It has one female soldier as a member, as well as four Korean soldiers who serve alongside U.S. troops. They're known as KATUSA soldiers - shorthand for a program called Korean Augmentation to the United States Army.
The team is part of the U.S. Forces Korea's Good Neighbor Program and hosts demonstrations for U.S. and Korean dignitaries, local communities and even performs side by side with Republic of Korea Tae Kwon Do teams. Tae Kwon Do is Korea's national sport.
Today, the team performed a demonstration for Army Command Sgt. Maj. William J. Gainey, the senior enlisted advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during his visit here to talk with troops.
In the morning, the team concentrates its training on competition fighting and sparring, and the afternoon is dedicated to acrobatics, fight scenes and learning to flip and fall. The team works out six days a week, but normally only a half day on Saturdays.
Jones has served on the team for more than a year and has worked his way up to team captain. His talent and hard work pushed him up through the ranks until he was working directly for the team captain. When the team captain left, Jones was selected by the grand master to lead the team. Jones said he prefers martial arts to other sports because it can be tailored to the individual.
"Sometimes what works for me is not going to work for another guy," he said.
As a boy, Jones said, he left the marks of his training on the walls of his house a few times when he let his temper get the best of him.
"I had a few little temper tantrums. I tested my stuff on the walls. (My parents) weren't too happy about that," he said and laughed.
"My dad said, 'That's not why I put you in that martial arts stuff,'" he recalled.
But his skills didn't give him an edge when bullying his little sister. She, too, holds a black belt in karate.
"I got a kick in the head once or twice," he said, laughing again.
Soldiers can request to try out for the team, or sometimes they are hand-picked from the units. Most have familiarity with the martial arts, but that is not a prerequisite.
"If a soldier is motivated and ready to learn, they can pick it up pretty fast," Jones said.
But, if they think it is all fun and games, they're wrong, Jones said.
"They're going to be hurting the first few weeks. They are going to be sore. This is like five or more hours of PT -- sometimes every day," he said.
The hardest part is working through the daily aches and pains. You have to learn which pains to work through, and which to nurse, he said.
"Just because we get a little bruise or a sprain or a headache, we can't quit working out," he said.
In two to three months, candidates can have some "good skills" and do some of the more basic moves. In about six months, with hard work and training, they can do some of the advanced moves, Jones said.
Jones said he joined the military because it was something he always wanted to do. After high school, he said, he was in a "slump" and wasn't getting what he wanted out of college.
"Life was a little tedious -- a little boring. I knew college was important, but I felt like I needed something more," Jones said. "To me, it doesn't get more honorable than serving your country," he said.
His parents' reaction was split between pride and concern.
"Mom was scared to death when I joined, but Dad couldn't be more proud," Jones said. "It took Mom a little while to adjust that I could be going to a place with bullets flying over my head, but she's calmed down. Now she's very proud of me. They brag about me all the time."
Jones said his martial arts background helped him physically and mentally to get through basic training.
Jones' time in Korea is nearly finished, and he hopes to go to Fort Bragg and to airborne school. While he is still undecided if he will make the military a career, Jones said he has enjoyed it so far and is keeping his options open. He admits he will miss the tight-knit group and the camaraderie that comes with living and training together nearly nonstop.
"We work out 24-7 together. We live in the barracks together. We go through the joys and the pains together," Jones said. "That is something I will definitely miss."
American Forces Press Service
June 20, 2007 – Like most other soldiers, Army Sgt. Jessie Jones gets up about 5:30 a.m. every day for Army physical training with his unit. A brisk three-mile run and some push-ups and sit-ups get his morning going. But for Jones and his unit, morning PT is only a warm-up. After everyone else has hit the showers and gone to work, Jones and his team are back in the gym - for their real workout.
Jones is the team captain for an elite 2nd Infantry Division Tae Kwon Do demonstration team that will spend the rest of the day kicking, jumping, flipping and punching, sweating bucket-loads and going home in pain.
Boards are broken using their heads, hands and feet, and the stunts they perform are circus-like in their acrobatic performances.
A mortar man in the Army, Korea is the first assignment for Jones. He has been in for more than three years and has spent time on a few of the Army camps north of Seoul and about two months in the demilitarized zone.
The 23-year-old from a small country town east of Charlotte, N.C., joined the Army looking for adventure. He never dreamed he could spend his days practicing his first love - the martial arts.
"I have to admit, I was one of those crazy martial arts kids," he said. "It's one thing that I just really loved."
Jones has been learning martial arts since he was 10 years old and holds a third-degree black belt in Shotokan, a street form of karate. He also has a couple of years of kickboxing under his belt.
"I can't imagine me doing much else. It's not just learning self-defense or how to beat people up. It's about self-improvement," he said.
The 23-member team is made up of soldiers from across the division, representing all battalions. It has one female soldier as a member, as well as four Korean soldiers who serve alongside U.S. troops. They're known as KATUSA soldiers - shorthand for a program called Korean Augmentation to the United States Army.
The team is part of the U.S. Forces Korea's Good Neighbor Program and hosts demonstrations for U.S. and Korean dignitaries, local communities and even performs side by side with Republic of Korea Tae Kwon Do teams. Tae Kwon Do is Korea's national sport.
Today, the team performed a demonstration for Army Command Sgt. Maj. William J. Gainey, the senior enlisted advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during his visit here to talk with troops.
In the morning, the team concentrates its training on competition fighting and sparring, and the afternoon is dedicated to acrobatics, fight scenes and learning to flip and fall. The team works out six days a week, but normally only a half day on Saturdays.
Jones has served on the team for more than a year and has worked his way up to team captain. His talent and hard work pushed him up through the ranks until he was working directly for the team captain. When the team captain left, Jones was selected by the grand master to lead the team. Jones said he prefers martial arts to other sports because it can be tailored to the individual.
"Sometimes what works for me is not going to work for another guy," he said.
As a boy, Jones said, he left the marks of his training on the walls of his house a few times when he let his temper get the best of him.
"I had a few little temper tantrums. I tested my stuff on the walls. (My parents) weren't too happy about that," he said and laughed.
"My dad said, 'That's not why I put you in that martial arts stuff,'" he recalled.
But his skills didn't give him an edge when bullying his little sister. She, too, holds a black belt in karate.
"I got a kick in the head once or twice," he said, laughing again.
Soldiers can request to try out for the team, or sometimes they are hand-picked from the units. Most have familiarity with the martial arts, but that is not a prerequisite.
"If a soldier is motivated and ready to learn, they can pick it up pretty fast," Jones said.
But, if they think it is all fun and games, they're wrong, Jones said.
"They're going to be hurting the first few weeks. They are going to be sore. This is like five or more hours of PT -- sometimes every day," he said.
The hardest part is working through the daily aches and pains. You have to learn which pains to work through, and which to nurse, he said.
"Just because we get a little bruise or a sprain or a headache, we can't quit working out," he said.
In two to three months, candidates can have some "good skills" and do some of the more basic moves. In about six months, with hard work and training, they can do some of the advanced moves, Jones said.
Jones said he joined the military because it was something he always wanted to do. After high school, he said, he was in a "slump" and wasn't getting what he wanted out of college.
"Life was a little tedious -- a little boring. I knew college was important, but I felt like I needed something more," Jones said. "To me, it doesn't get more honorable than serving your country," he said.
His parents' reaction was split between pride and concern.
"Mom was scared to death when I joined, but Dad couldn't be more proud," Jones said. "It took Mom a little while to adjust that I could be going to a place with bullets flying over my head, but she's calmed down. Now she's very proud of me. They brag about me all the time."
Jones said his martial arts background helped him physically and mentally to get through basic training.
Jones' time in Korea is nearly finished, and he hopes to go to Fort Bragg and to airborne school. While he is still undecided if he will make the military a career, Jones said he has enjoyed it so far and is keeping his options open. He admits he will miss the tight-knit group and the camaraderie that comes with living and training together nearly nonstop.
"We work out 24-7 together. We live in the barracks together. We go through the joys and the pains together," Jones said. "That is something I will definitely miss."
Third Freedom Walk Continues New Tradition
By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service
June 20, 2007 – As the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks approaches, America Supports You is gearing up for its third annual Freedom Walk on Sept. 9 in the nation's capital. America Supports You is a Defense Department program connecting citizens and corporations with military personnel and their families serving at home and abroad.
The inaugural America Supports You Freedom Walk, created by Pentagon employees to commemorate the attack on the building and honor all the lives lost on 9/11, was held Sept. 11, 2005. Since then, the America Supports You Freedom Walk's message has remained consistent.
"The Freedom Walk continues to be our country's way to commemorate the lives lost on 9/11 -- to really embrace the families and let them know we haven't forgotten about their loss," said Allison Barber, deputy secretary of defense for internal communication and public liaison. "(It's also) to honor our veterans past and present and really recommit ourselves to freedom and what that means to each person on their own level."
Last year, Barber's hope was that a Freedom Walk would take place in every state. While there was at least one walk in each state, no two walks were exactly alike. And that, she said, is precisely the way it should be.
"I really want to communicate to people that Freedom Walks don't have to be complicated. They don't have to be expansive," she said.
In San Diego, the walk was conducted on an open course, and walkers could participate as their schedule allowed. Walkers in St. Louis all wore yellow T-shirts and formed a human "yellow ribbon" in centerfield at Busch Stadium.
The differences were evident right down to the organizers. America Supports You home-front groups organized most of the walks. However, in Sebring, Ohio, Colton Lockner, then 9, organized a walk for more than 2,000 of his town's nearly 5,000 residents.
It's already evident that this year's walks will be as varied as those in the past. In fact, Barber said, a shopping mall is planning a walk for people who walk the mall for exercise.
That's just one of the more than 80 walks in the works so far for this September's observance.
"I think it's important for the American people to know that whatever moment they create in their communities, their schools, their corporations ... is important, because it's all about remembering and honoring," Barber said.
More than 15,000 walkers participated in the 2005 inaugural walk to remember those who lost their lives and honor the nation's veterans. That walk began at the Pentagon and ended on the National Mall with a performance by country singer Clint Black.
The 2006 America Supports You Freedom Walk, which took place on Sept. 10, began on the National Mall with a brief opening program before walkers crossed the Potomac River bound for the Pentagon. In addition to a patriotic program featuring opera singer Denyse Graves, beams of white light shone from the building's center courtyard honoring the people who lost their lives when American Airlines Flight 77 was flown into the Pentagon.
This year's America Supports You Freedom Walk will be held on the morning of Sept. 9 and will look similar to its predecessors. Walkers will begin at the Lincoln Memorial and walk to the Pentagon, where, as in years past, they will enjoy a patriotic program.
Those interested in participating in the national walk can register through the America Supports You Freedom Walk Web site, www.americasupportsyou.mil/freedomwalk. The site also helps people find Freedom Walks near their communities, and provides information on how to organize a Freedom Walk.
American Forces Press Service
June 20, 2007 – As the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks approaches, America Supports You is gearing up for its third annual Freedom Walk on Sept. 9 in the nation's capital. America Supports You is a Defense Department program connecting citizens and corporations with military personnel and their families serving at home and abroad.
The inaugural America Supports You Freedom Walk, created by Pentagon employees to commemorate the attack on the building and honor all the lives lost on 9/11, was held Sept. 11, 2005. Since then, the America Supports You Freedom Walk's message has remained consistent.
"The Freedom Walk continues to be our country's way to commemorate the lives lost on 9/11 -- to really embrace the families and let them know we haven't forgotten about their loss," said Allison Barber, deputy secretary of defense for internal communication and public liaison. "(It's also) to honor our veterans past and present and really recommit ourselves to freedom and what that means to each person on their own level."
Last year, Barber's hope was that a Freedom Walk would take place in every state. While there was at least one walk in each state, no two walks were exactly alike. And that, she said, is precisely the way it should be.
"I really want to communicate to people that Freedom Walks don't have to be complicated. They don't have to be expansive," she said.
In San Diego, the walk was conducted on an open course, and walkers could participate as their schedule allowed. Walkers in St. Louis all wore yellow T-shirts and formed a human "yellow ribbon" in centerfield at Busch Stadium.
The differences were evident right down to the organizers. America Supports You home-front groups organized most of the walks. However, in Sebring, Ohio, Colton Lockner, then 9, organized a walk for more than 2,000 of his town's nearly 5,000 residents.
It's already evident that this year's walks will be as varied as those in the past. In fact, Barber said, a shopping mall is planning a walk for people who walk the mall for exercise.
That's just one of the more than 80 walks in the works so far for this September's observance.
"I think it's important for the American people to know that whatever moment they create in their communities, their schools, their corporations ... is important, because it's all about remembering and honoring," Barber said.
More than 15,000 walkers participated in the 2005 inaugural walk to remember those who lost their lives and honor the nation's veterans. That walk began at the Pentagon and ended on the National Mall with a performance by country singer Clint Black.
The 2006 America Supports You Freedom Walk, which took place on Sept. 10, began on the National Mall with a brief opening program before walkers crossed the Potomac River bound for the Pentagon. In addition to a patriotic program featuring opera singer Denyse Graves, beams of white light shone from the building's center courtyard honoring the people who lost their lives when American Airlines Flight 77 was flown into the Pentagon.
This year's America Supports You Freedom Walk will be held on the morning of Sept. 9 and will look similar to its predecessors. Walkers will begin at the Lincoln Memorial and walk to the Pentagon, where, as in years past, they will enjoy a patriotic program.
Those interested in participating in the national walk can register through the America Supports You Freedom Walk Web site, www.americasupportsyou.mil/freedomwalk. The site also helps people find Freedom Walks near their communities, and provides information on how to organize a Freedom Walk.
Flexibility Encouraged to Promote Reserve-Component Service
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
June 20, 2007 – More flexibility is needed to encourage Guard and Reserve members to better balance their military and civilian obligations as they contribute to the nation's defense, a senior official told the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves today. Michael Dominguez, principal deputy under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, told commission members the Defense Department has come a long way in changing outdated management practices to encourage Guard and Reserve service.
But it's a delicate balancing act, he noted in his prepared statement. Initiatives that encourage members to leave the service -- educational assistance benefits that kick in after the duty is served, or efforts to reduce the age at which reservists can draw retirement pay, among them -- don't support force-management goals.
Another consideration is the appearance that benefits offered to Guard and Reserve members might be more attractive than those offered for active-duty members, he said.
Dominguez said the challenges facing the Defense Department are two-fold. As it continues working to transition the reserve components into an operational reserve, it's also striving to institutionalize a "continuum of service," he said.
That continuum would allow members to transition routinely and without hitches between the active-duty military, the Guard and Reserve, and Defense Department civil service jobs, Dominguez explained.
To get there, "we need to overcome a system of intersections with stoplights and one-way streets," he said in his prepared testimony. Replacing them, he said, would be "a system of on-ramps and off-ramps."
Under such a system, members might be "on the freeway," as on active duty or as a full-time Defense Department civilian during part of a career, he said. At other times, they might be "cruising along the access road at times" in the Selected Reserve, or "parked in the garage but ready to go" in the Individual Ready Reserve or standby reserve.
"But regardless of personal circumstances that put the individual in that particular lane at that particular time, the system should be able to accommodate movement ... consistent with military requirements and as personal circumstances change," Dominguez said.
Dominquez recommended other initiatives to improve the way reserve-component members are integrated into the total force. Among these are:
-- Increasing the full-time support assigned to reserve-component units to promote readiness in light of increased requirements;
-- Expanding opportunities to receive joint training and qualifications; and
-- Ensuring a robust and competitive compensation package tailored to attracting and retaining high-quality members.
Senior service representatives are slated to address the commission tomorrow.
The independent Commission on the National Guard and Reserves was established under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 to recommend any needed changes in law and policy to ensure that the Guard and Reserves are organized, trained, equipped, compensated and supported to meet U.S. national security requirements.
American Forces Press Service
June 20, 2007 – More flexibility is needed to encourage Guard and Reserve members to better balance their military and civilian obligations as they contribute to the nation's defense, a senior official told the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves today. Michael Dominguez, principal deputy under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, told commission members the Defense Department has come a long way in changing outdated management practices to encourage Guard and Reserve service.
But it's a delicate balancing act, he noted in his prepared statement. Initiatives that encourage members to leave the service -- educational assistance benefits that kick in after the duty is served, or efforts to reduce the age at which reservists can draw retirement pay, among them -- don't support force-management goals.
Another consideration is the appearance that benefits offered to Guard and Reserve members might be more attractive than those offered for active-duty members, he said.
Dominguez said the challenges facing the Defense Department are two-fold. As it continues working to transition the reserve components into an operational reserve, it's also striving to institutionalize a "continuum of service," he said.
That continuum would allow members to transition routinely and without hitches between the active-duty military, the Guard and Reserve, and Defense Department civil service jobs, Dominguez explained.
To get there, "we need to overcome a system of intersections with stoplights and one-way streets," he said in his prepared testimony. Replacing them, he said, would be "a system of on-ramps and off-ramps."
Under such a system, members might be "on the freeway," as on active duty or as a full-time Defense Department civilian during part of a career, he said. At other times, they might be "cruising along the access road at times" in the Selected Reserve, or "parked in the garage but ready to go" in the Individual Ready Reserve or standby reserve.
"But regardless of personal circumstances that put the individual in that particular lane at that particular time, the system should be able to accommodate movement ... consistent with military requirements and as personal circumstances change," Dominguez said.
Dominquez recommended other initiatives to improve the way reserve-component members are integrated into the total force. Among these are:
-- Increasing the full-time support assigned to reserve-component units to promote readiness in light of increased requirements;
-- Expanding opportunities to receive joint training and qualifications; and
-- Ensuring a robust and competitive compensation package tailored to attracting and retaining high-quality members.
Senior service representatives are slated to address the commission tomorrow.
The independent Commission on the National Guard and Reserves was established under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 to recommend any needed changes in law and policy to ensure that the Guard and Reserves are organized, trained, equipped, compensated and supported to meet U.S. national security requirements.
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